"The only thing that matters is...power."

Dan Bongino's appointment as Deputy FBI Director is a chilling step in the promised retribution

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“The only thing that matters is fucking power”

Those were the words out of the mouth of Dan Bongino on his podcast just last June as he discussed the need for MAGA to win the election in the fall. He has made a good living as one of the leading ‘rage-bait Republicans’ for nearly a decade and his approach is singularly angry.

Watch this clip and you can see the rage just emanating from his bulging veins as he relishes the chance to unleash his hate on the perceived enemies of the far right.

Just watch his eyes….

Now he has been named Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is not now nor has ever been an FBI agent. How unusual is this? In its entire history the FBI has not had a Deputy Director that wasn’t an active agent.

According to the Washington Post, the newly confirmed Director Kash Patel (I can’t believe I wrote those three words together) promised otherwise during his confirmation process,

“When Patel met with the FBI Agents Association ahead of his confirmation in January, he assured the group’s leaders that he would select a deputy who was a veteran of the law enforcement bureau and had the trust of the agents, according to a memo the group wrote to members Sunday.”

Yet, Patel triumphantly announced bringing on the former NRA spokesman and New York City police officer, turned Secret Service agent, who mysteriously and still opaquely, left the agency shortly after serving a minor role on President Obama’s detail.

“I am proud to welcome Dan Bongino as the next Deputy Director of the FBI — a warrior and lifelong public servant,” he wrote. “With Pam Bondi as our new Attorney General, we are assembling a team focused on restoring public trust, upholding the rule of law, and ensuring justice is served.”

A role Bongino touted as being a positive experience until it turned politically expedient to bash the President when he ran for Senate in Maryland in 2012 and lost. Then he ran for Congress in Maryland in 2014 and lost again. Not to be outdone he moved to friendlier territory in Florida and ran for Congress again in 2016 only to complete the trifecta and lose again.

He’s nothing if not consistent.

Now he is in place for revenge

During that period he joined the National Rifle Association as a spokesman and then their fledgling, and ultimately failing, “TV network” NRATV. He launched a show with great fanfare in March of 2018 as a key part of their efforts to turn the NRA into a lifestyle brand as much as a gun rights lobbyist.

It didn’t last long as subsequent lawsuits have revealed that when his contract was being negotiated for the next year, he turned down an offer of $1.5 million and left NRATV in December after just 9 months of production. He launched his Westwood backed podcast/video show that has grown to be one of the largest right wing programs and is likely making him millions of dollars a year.

His work has given us a lot of fodder of his plans and views of not just Americans on the left who oppose Trump but even the agency he is now ostensibly in charge of. More from the Washington Post:

“You think there are legitimate people with character running the FBI? Huh? That’s hilarious,” he said on his podcast on Aug. 17, 2022. “The FBI is entirely corrupted at the management level, and it’s filtering down now even into some in the rank and file.”

But most of his anger and rage is for those who have dared to ever question the MAGA movement. In another of his unhinged rants last year he laid out just what he will do if given the chance.

“We are not forgetting about shit! Do you get that? We are going to hold every one of these people accountable and if we can’t find politicians that will do that then we will find someone else,” Bongino rants.

Well, he now as the most powerful law enforcement and domestic intelligence agency in the United States at his disposal to ensure things don’t “go back to normal.”

Then in May, after Donald Trump was convicted in the New York City hush money and cover up case, he posted this promise about a coming “civil war” with the “Libs.”

Nothing I have posted here is hyperbole or my opinion. These are all Dan Bongino’s own words about what he will do if given the chance. These are his threats against his political enemies. Now he has been given the power to do it and wants us to believe that all his forgotten.

On his last podcast yesterday he lamented leaving his media empire and added,

“On Monday morning, Bongino hosted his daily podcast for one of the last times before he steps into his new role at the FBI. He grew emotional, saying he was sad about leaving his podcast, but told his listeners that he had a responsibility to reform the FBI as an apolitical actor.

“I get it if you are a political opponent of mine that has been involved with proudly celebrating a weaponized justice system, how you don’t understand how a guy like me who discusses partisan content in an opinion show can go and do [an] unquestionably nonpartisan job,” he said on Monday.

“I’m going to ask you a simple question: Have you seen what I did before I came here?” he continued, referencing his work at the Secret Service.”

Perhaps that’s so. Color me skeptical that his plans for retribution are suddenly forgotten after years of raging at his fellow Americans as enemies.

Let’s see who's doors the men in the sunglasses show up at in the next year. Until then I’ll take him at his word that the “left” has pain coming.

Another dangerous move from the Trump Administration and another step in their plans for fascism.

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