White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters during a media briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Jim Watson – AFP / Getty Images)
By Ben Zeisloft February 26, 2025 at 7:30am
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt provided a stark warning to Washington insiders who are uneasy about the appointment of Dan Bongino to serve as deputy director of the FBI.
The conservative commentator, who was chosen by President Donald Trump on Sunday to lead the federal law enforcement institution, is both a former special agent at the Secret Service and an outsider to the nation’s federal government.
When asked about his appointment, Leavitt emphasized during her Tuesday media briefing that both realities make him formidable.
“I’m not sure if anybody in this room has listened to Mr. Bongino when he talks about the past corruption at the FBI, when he talks about his experience serving for the United States Secret Service,” Leavitt told reporters.
“This is a man who loves his country and who has honorably served our country in ways that many people have not.”
Leavitt observed that Bongino “understands the depth of the corruption at these institutions, which the American people re-elected President Trump to shake up.”
She also denounced the way in which legacy media outlets have failed to take Bongino seriously.
“I think it’s quite despicable to see many networks in this room who have had chyrons on their television screens labeling Mr. Bongino as a far-right podcaster. He is not. He is a former law enforcement agent,” she continued.
Are you happy Dan Bongino was appointed to a key FBI role?
“He is a former Secret Service agent who put his life on the line to protect this country. And that is why the president of the United States has entrusted him for this important role.”
WH: People In This City Get Nervous When An Outsider Like Dan Bongino Is Appointed — And They Should Be
More – https://t.co/SHmpfdKCrV
“It is despicable to see many networks in this room have chyrons on their television screen labeling Mr. Bongino as a ‘far-right… https://t.co/4A8XgX1Jr9 pic.twitter.com/sR9Vl5hIQ5
— RCP Video (@rcpvideo) February 25, 2025
That’s when she urged the bureaucrats to tread lightly.
“He’s also an outsider to this Washington swamp, and we often see that when outsiders are appointed to such coveted positions, a lot of people in this city get very, very nervous,” Leavitt warned.
“They should be, because Dan Bongino and Kash Patel and Attorney General Bondi are focused on rooting out the corruption at these agencies and ending the weaponization of government once and for all.”
Washington does not actually care that Bongino has never served at quite that level in a major law enforcement agency.
They are probably ambivalent about his former Secret Service experience — and even his conservative political views.
What they are actually nervous about is his unpredictability.
As Leavitt said, the fact that he does not like the corruption and wants to solve the issue on behalf of the American people makes him dangerous to the entrenched swamp.
That is why Trump chose him. Sometimes a complete outsider far away from any corruption is needed to effectively address a corrupt institution.
If the elite are becoming “very, very nervous,” that just means we can have high hopes for his time in office.
Ben Zeisloft is the editor of The Republic Sentinel, a conservative news outlet owned and operated by Christians. He is a former staff reporter for The Daily Wire and has written for The Spectator, Campus Reform, and other conservative news outlets. Ben graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with concentrations in business economics and marketing.
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