Why Dan Bongino is LEAVING FBI and Trump Admin and Returning to Podcasting, with Glenn Greenwald

The FBI has been suffering that for many years now. And the two people at the top of it under Trump are of course, Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, who I think most Republicans, I mean, maybe not the establishment types, but most MAGA faithful supported

going into those two top roles. And then there was some real questioning after the Epstein debacle, both when the pair of them went on with Maria Bartiromo and said they believe Epstein did kill himself and that there wasn't a murder

and you just had to look at the tape from the prison cell. And then even the left-wing media started to challenge that. So there was a real crisis of confidence. Then Dan Bongino threatened to quit over his blowout with Pam Bondi, but he didn't quit, he stayed. And it's been a tumultuous nine, 10 months,

I think it's fair to say, even for two guys who had previously been trusted by MAGA, but there's no question there's been an erosion of that since they went on the inside, you know, as can happen, especially when you go to an organization that distrusted. Now we get news that Dan Bongino is stepping down.

He sent out a tweet yesterday. I think he said effective early January. So he did not make it a year. And now he's already getting some blowback. This is what the left is saying, but this is the reason I'm playing this is

you're also hearing this online from some on the right, which is kind of telling because I love Bungino and I've been kind of taken aback at like the, I don't know, the shift in opinion by some, even on the right.

But here's Nicole Wallace with her two cent take. This guy is a freaking joke. He wears t-shirts that are obviously too small, and he went on Fox News and complained about how long the workday is as the number two at the FBI. The FBI, as you two know better than anyone, protects children from child sex traffickers. And on that topic, Dan Bongino had a successful podcast in part because he peddled conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein and then got to the FBI and let Pam Bondi roll over him when they decided to cover up the files

because Donald Trump's name is in them, a fact confirmed by Suzy Wiles this week in 11 on-the-record interviews with Chris Whipple. I want to know if either of you can speak to the lasting damage or the danger that we're in, because a guy that is a joke was the number two at the FBI.

OK, first of all, they did not let Pam Bondi roll over them. She's their boss. The FBI is not an independent agency that doesn't answer to anybody. They answer to Pam Bondi. If Pam Bondi directs the strategy that we're not releasing anything more on the Epstein's file, then that is what Cash and Dan had to do. I'm sorry that they were very outspoken on Epstein beforehand, but like to pretend that they had independent autonomy when DOJ, and frankly, let's face it, it must have been Trump's call, made a call is to ignore reality. However, I'm going to give you one more soundbite, Glenn,

and it is the moment she referenced when Dan went on Fox in May of 2025, sought 20 C.

I gave up everything for this. I mean, you know, my wife is struggling. I'm not a victim. I'm not Jim Comey. It's fine. I did this and I'm proud I did it But if you think we're there for tea and crumpets, well, I mean cash is there all day We'd share it. Our offices are linked. He turns on the faucet. I hear it. He's there It I think it's in like six o'clock in the morning. He doesn't leave till seven at night

You know, I'm in there at 730 in the morning. You know, he uses the gym. I work out in my apartment. But I stare at these four walls all day in D.C. you know, by myself, divorced from my wife. Not divorced, but I mean, separated divorced. And it's hard. I mean, you know, we love each other and it's hard to be apart.

So she mocked him for it. Many did. But to me, that explains why he's leaving support even amongst some MAGA faithful because of the nature of the FBI and what I said with Epstein, even though I think Dan was very opposed to how it was handled by Bondi. And I'm sure he, I haven't talked to him, but I'm sure he's like, this is a fucking thankless job, I'm out of here.

I wanna go back to my family, my wife and my podcast. So my question to you is, can he do that now, given some of those issues that I just highlighted?

I don't know if people realize Dan Bongino had his podcast on Rumble, where he's also a major investor. And that podcast was, I mean, the call to success is to wildly understate the case. He was making enormous amounts of money. He had a massive audience of people unbelievably loyal to him.

And loyal to him because of how much trust they had in him. And one of the reasons they had so much trust in him was because he was such an emphatic critic of the deep state of these organizations. And among the things he was telling them was that the US government was concealing the Epstein files because it was trying to protect the world's most powerful people from being exposed as child predators.

Because they know that Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself. And because Jeffrey Epstein had blackmail power over all these people and were therefore forcing them to keep these files concealed. This was not an ancillary issue for Dan Bongino. This was something he talked about over and over and over. And then also other things as well, like the guy who killed Trump and all the stuff that

supposedly was being covered up about that, none of which has been released under the FBI's leadership. And so when you then months into Dan Bongino stint, watch him go on Fox and obviously in a very uncomfortable way say, we found no evidence of blackmail. We don't think it's appropriate to release these files. Please trust us when we tell you that he absolutely killed himself. Obviously, the people who have been listening to Dan Bongino for all these years and believing that this is like one of the very few people who they could trust, turn around and in an instant,

soon as they're inside, abandon so many of the core beliefs that they had been insisting were true, is obviously gonna erode the confidence and trust that people have in you. And I also think one of the things that it's worth remembering, we all have talents and we all have talents, which means we're not talented at everything.

Usually we're all talented at something. And it's important to be humble enough to realize that because you succeed in one thing doesn't mean you can succeed in something in anything else. Dan Bongino is a very effective outsider, like a very effective critic. He brings people along with him.

Running the FBI is an entirely different skill set. And I think a lot of people in the MAGA movement, because of how validly critical they were of these institutions, decided that the people who are there for their whole career, who have the quote unquote expertise, all need to be thrown out. And I totally understand that and in part even agree with it. But it doesn't mean that you can just pop up some guy who's a very talented podcaster and put him in this administrative job

that he obviously doesn't wanna be in. Sorry, but getting to work at 7.30 and leaving at 7 o'clock inside an office, that is not exactly uncommon. That's not a backbreaking job. That's the experience of most Americans. Like you go out to your office, you're separated from your family, your kids because you're working.

Like Dan Bongino made it sound like he was like carrying the cross of the crucifix on his back for days. And I just think it kind of illustrates that humility is needed, like to realize what you're good at and what you're not.

So I think he didn't really want to do that. That's what I think. I think he didn't really want to do this, but he, I'm guessing here, I haven't talked to anybody about this, but I'm guessing that Trump thought he'd be the perfect person to do it, he and Cash, because they'd been so critical of the FBI. So he found FBI critics to come in so that the MAGA base would trust the new leadership.

But then I think neither one of them fully appreciated, just like they didn't appreciate over at HHS or DHS or DOJ, the fact that these organizations are completely replete with leftists. And it's very freaking hard to change the culture, to change the motion, the forward motion of these things

in a leftist direction, just because you have leadership that's different. They're trying, they're definitely trying. And so I've felt very much for both of them. And I will say this, I think really the catching of the January 6th pipe bomber,

assuming this is the guy, which so far I believe it is, was huge. Like I almost feel like if you're Dan Bongino, you can say, you know what? It was divine right order. Like they put me in there

because it seems like he really spearheaded that. I did something that really mattered. Who knows what this guy was capable of? What if he had tried to bomb something else and maybe he saved lives? Maybe he was there at that time, which was another one of his quote unquote conspiracy theories. I'm not citing you there,

but like another thing that people point to. And he pushed it and he wanted January 6th pipe bomber found and he found him. And maybe Dan just said, you know what, I did something that really mattered. You know, I let cops be cops again, as he and Cash keep saying.

And now I just wanna get back to, as you point out the thing that I'm great at and my family and government service is not for me.

Yeah, let me just say one thing though, and it's not really like disagreeing per se, but I think just for me at least a more precise way to explain it. I don't think these institutions are filled with what I would call leftists. I've never met a leftist who said, as my goal is to go work at the FBI or become a CIA operative. I think what these people are are more like establishment operatives. They're like institutionalists. These are people who want to protect the permanent power faction in Washington that's really

not subject to elections. And you can put people at the top who are determined to kind of blow it all up. But being at the top doesn't mean that the entire infrastructure under you that's been cultivated for decades and these people are inculcated about how these institutions should work. They can easily resist the comings and goings of politicians.

Every American president has discovered that, that there's this huge part of Washington that they nominally control, but that they don't really have any ability to change at all no matter how much they want to. And I bet you that was also part of Dan Bongino's frustration is, you can get in there and say, okay, we're in control now, we're gonna fix this institution. And yet you can't just get rid of the entire FBI.

There's experienced operatives in there and investigators, and they have an ideology about how things should be done. And they're not gonna just instantly give up the power that they have and the ideology that they've been trained to have forever, simply because a couple of guys at the top have been critics on a podcast. And I'm sure that has to be frustrating to try and reform the deep state and find that you're actually not able to do so, even though you have a democratic mandate from the American

people to do it.

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