Yesterday, former Secret Service agent and popular radio and podcast host Dan Bongino appeared before an investigative panel about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. To be clear, this was not a formal Congressional hearing, even though Reps. Chip Roy, Eli Crane, Cory Mills, Andy Biggs, and Matt Gaetz participated. As you can see in the video below, it was held at The Heritage Foundation, not in the U.S. Capitol.
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But that shouldn’t distract from the fact that, in four minutes, Bongino calmly but decidedly laid waste to the institutional problems plaguing the Secret Service. Problems which, in his educated opinion, led directly to the assassination attempt.
This morning, Bongino posted his opening statement on Twitter through his Bongino Report account. Watch:
While not raising his voice even a decibel, Bongino excoriates the Secret Service’s problems of outdated technology (‘yesterday’s technology tomorrow’), misapplication of ever-increasing funding (‘less with more’), and mission creep (‘counterfeiting is not what we do now’).
As he said when he began, he wasn’t about to waste any time. It was, in his words, ‘an apocalyptic security failure.’
And speaking of that ‘less with more’ problem,’ it sure seems like Bongino is correct and the Secret Service isn’t applying its funding where it should go.
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Maybe that extra $2 billion was allocated to DEI imperatives required by former director Kimberly Cheatle.
Bongino had some words to say about her too, as well as her successor, Acting Director Ronald Rowe, as the forum continued.
Tie color? TIE COLOR?
Bongino may be on point that the Secret Service is even worse off with Rowe in charge than it was with Cheatle.
He and Rep. Roy also were not buying the fact that the would-be assassin, a 20-year-old man who has grown up in the Internet and social media age, did not have any kind of digital footprint.
After the forum, Bongino also had many of the representatives on his radio show where he and Crane were curious as to how the assassin could have had such advanced explosives without any training … unless he had help.
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This is all some really disturbing stuff.
It should be noted that yesterday’s forum wasn’t the only activity related to the assassination investigation. The members of the formal Congressional task force also toured Butler, Pa., the site of the shooting on Monday.
Rep. Crane said that he helped convene this separate panel because he was not satisfied with the political nature of the task force.
Crane told The Hill that while he respects those on the official task force, whose members were appointed after careful coordination with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), he said it ‘was put together politically,’ making him question whether the House panel would make decisions based on politics itself.
Bongino shared his thoughts about the political nature of Congress and the Secret Service as well:
‘It appears that for the first time in American history, we have a Secret Service that is making decisions that may not be all political, but may have a political tinge to it,’ Bongino said, commenting on the Secret Service’s reasoning for declining previous Trump campaign requests for additional security. Bongino also alleged that the Secret Service is ‘dominated’ by diversity, equity and inclusion considerations when making major decisions.
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He ain’t wrong.
That he did.
Regardless of the political squabbles that may have led to the dual investigations, it would be irresponsible for the Congressional task force not to bring Bongino in to testify — or his fellow panelists, former Navy SEAL Erik Prince and SWAT operator Ben Shaffer, who was at the July 13 Trump rally.
Bongino ruffles a lot of feathers, even among conservatives. We get that. But it’s difficult to believe that, given his experience as well as what he said in the clips above, the task force would not want to hear from him officially as part of their investigation.
We hope that Pennsylvania Representative Mike Kelly, who chairs the task force, makes that happen.