Three months into his odd tenure as the FBI’s deputy director, Dan Bongino doesn’t appear to be enjoying his work at the bureau. The former right-wing provocateur and podcaster nevertheless remains at his post, and made some curious comments about the FBI’s work during his Wednesday night interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
When the host asked about a specific ongoing matter, Bongino had the sense to avoid answering directly, which obviously would’ve been inappropriate given his position. That said, the guest did appear eager to comment on the FBI’s approach to allegations of public corruption. He told viewers:
I want to say this: You know, the FBI obviously has the public corruption portfolio and yes, if you are a corrupt politician out there, if you are engaged in behavior — you know what you’re doing — we’re going to find you. I promise. No one is going to get off. The days of selecting and putting your, you know, partisan bias on and taking care of your friends. Those days are over. You know what, Sean? I don’t have any friends. I don’t want any friends. … I didn’t come here to make friends. I don’t give a damn about friends. I don’t have any friends. I don’t want any friends.
Bongino went on to say that politicians who are “screwing around” should know: “We’re coming for you.”
He did not appear to be kidding.
There’s no shortage of problems with this, but let’s quickly review some of the most glaring.
First, if Bongino is looking for evidence of politicians engaging in corruption, I might recommend he turn his attention to the president who appointed him to his current position. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, for example, recently commented on Donald Trump’s meme coin gambit, describing it as “the most brazen act of corruption by a president in our lifetimes, probably in a century, possibly ever.”
This was hardly an isolated incident. The incumbent president’s second term has been filled with countless examples of alleged corruption, prompting The New York Times to note in an analysis published last week that Trump and his family “have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.”
Second, the idea that those politicians accused of public corruption won’t get away with it, because the days of doing partisan favors for allies “is over,” is plainly at odds with everything we know about reality. In fact, Trump has cultivated an indefensible record of handing out presidential pardons like party favors to Republicans convicted of public corruption — not because they were innocent, but because Trump saw them as partisan and ideological allies.
When Bongino told corrupt politicians, “We’re coming for you,” he neglected to add the next part of the sentence: “We’re coming for you, because the sitting president has a get-out-of-jail free card he’s eager to put in your hands.”
But just as notably, the FBI’s deputy director made it sound as if the bureau has a robust system in place to identify, investigate and hold accountable those accused of corruption. That certainly used to be true, but it’s not anymore.
Whether Bongino understands this or not, NBC News reported this week, “For decades, the FBI and the Justice Department have been the main enforcers of laws against political corruption and white-collar fraud in the United States. In four months, the Trump administration has dismantled key parts of that law enforcement infrastructure, creating what experts say is the ripest environment for corruption by public officials and business executives in a generation.”
The evidence to bolster the thesis is overwhelming. It was just a few weeks ago, for example, when the FBI shut down its squad that handles investigations into members of Congress and fraud by federal employees. It was part of a breathtaking recent pattern:
The Trump administration has never explicitly said that it’s tolerant of corruption, but given the circumstances, it didn’t really have to.
As for Bongino, we’re left with the question of whether the FBI deputy director was simply unaware of current events or whether he was hoping those who watched the interview were unaware of current events.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com