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

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 Banino 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 Berto Romo and said they believe Epstein did kill himself and that there wasn’t a murder and you just had to look at the the tape from the prison cell. And then even the left-wing media started to challenge that. Uh so there was a real crisis of confidence. Then Dan Banino threatened to quit uh over his blowout with Pam Bondi, but he didn’t quit. He stayed. And it’s been a tumultuous 9 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 Bonino’s stepping down. Uh he sent out a tweet yesterday. I think he said effective early January. So, he did not make it a year and um 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 you’re also hearing this online from some on the right which is kind of telling because I love Banino and I I’ve been kind of taken aback at like the I don’t know the this the shift in opinion by some even on the right. But here’s Nicole Wallace uh 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. Do you think that the FBI, as you two know better than anyone, protects children from child sex traffickers? U and on that topic, Dan Bonino had a successful podcast in part because he pedled conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epste and then got to the FBI and let Pam Bonnie roll over him when they decided to cover up the files because Donald Trump’s name is in them. a fact confirmed by Susie Wilds this week in 11 on there 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. >> Okay, 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 at anybody. They answer to Pam Bondi. If Pam Bondi directs the strategy that we’re not releasing anything more on the FB on the Epstein’s uh file, then that is what Cash and Dan had to do. I’m sorry that they were very outspoken on Epste 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 sound bite, Glenn, and it is the the moment you referenced when Dan went on Fox in May of 2025, sought 20 C. >> I gave up everything for this. I mean, you know, my my wife is struggling and 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 share our offices are linked. He turns on the faucet. I hear it. He’s there at I He gets in at like six o’clock in the morning. He doesn’t leave till 7 at night. You know, I’m in there at 7:30 in the morning. I you know, he uses the gym. I work out in my uh apartment, but I stare at these four walls all day in DC, you know, by myself, divorced from my uh 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. I mean, it was a thankless job where he was losing support even among 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 um I’m sure he I haven’t talked to him, but I’m sure he’s like this thankless job. I’m out of here. I want to 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 that I just highlighted? I don’t know if people realize you Dan Dan Bino uh is had his podcast on Rumble where he’s also um a major investor and that podcast was I mean to call it a 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 they had in him. And one of the reasons they had so much trust in him was because he was such a 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 pro the these files concealed. This was not an ancillary issue for Dan Bonino. This was something he talked about over and over and over. And then also other things as well, you know, like the the the guy who killed Trump and all the stuff that supposedly was being covered up about that, none of which is has been released under the FBI’s leadership. And so when you then months into Dan Bonino’s 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 Bonino for all these years and believing that this was 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 going to erode your the the confidence and trust that that people have in you. And I also think one of the things that it’s worth remembering, you know, 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 Bonino is a very effective outsider, like a very effective critic. He he brings people along with him. running the FBI is an entirely different skill set. And I think a lot of people in in in the MAGA movement because of how validly uh 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 plop up some some guy who’s a very talented podcaster and put him in this like administrative job that he obviously doesn’t want to be in like sorry but getting to work at 7:30 and leaving at 7:00 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 Bino made it sound like this was, you know, he was like carrying the cross of of the crucifix on 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 I I think he didn’t really want to do it. That’s what I think. I think he 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 he found FBI critics to come in so that the MAGA base would 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 the motion, the forward motion of these things in a leftist direction just because you have leadership that’s different. They’re though they’re they’re trying. They’re definitely trying. And so I’ 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, you know, assuming this is the guy, uh, which so far I believe it is, was huge. Like I almost feel like if you’re Dan Bonino, 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. You know, 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 6 pipe bomber found. And he found him. And maybe Dan just said, “You know what? I did something that really mattered. You know, I I let cops be cops again, as he in Cash keeps saying. And now I just want to 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 let me just say one thing though to to not really like disagreeing per se, but I think just for me at least a more way precise way to explain it. I don’t think these institutions are filled with what I would call leftists. Like I’ve never met a leftist who says my goal is to go work at the FBI or become like 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 you know 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 you know the comingings and goings of politicians. Every American president has discovered that that there’s this huge part of Washington that they nominally control but that that don’t 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 Bonino’s frustration is you can get in there and say, “Okay, we’re in control now. We’re going to fix this institution.” And yet, you know, you can’t just get rid of the entire FBI. There’s experienced, you know, operatives in there and investigators. And they have again ideology about how things should be done. And they’re not going to 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. >> There are a lot of politicians that should be getting coal in their stocking for Christmas. But Birch Gold thinks as a smart planner, you deserve silver. 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Megyn Kelly is joined by Glenn Greenwald, host of Rumble’s “System Update,” to discuss Dan Bongino’s exit from the Trump administration and FBI leadership, whether he can return to his podcast without any interruption after the government role, and more.

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