Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino melted down on his show over a Daily Beast article that he felt mocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “manhood.”
Initially responding to criticism of FBI Director Kash Patel flying to Italy and partaking in a boozy locker room celebration after the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, an irate Bongino, 51, suggested that those in the media simply do not like seeing men in the administration be men.
“It’s about attacking every single member of the Trump team that engages in any of this type of behavior that celebrates manhood, testosterone, bravery, courage, strength, any of these attributes you would associate with traditional masculinity; they’ve got to bash all the time,” he said. “Sometimes guys just like sports, wants to drink a beer.”
Bongino said a Beast article from the weekend was another example of the media bashing the Trump administration’s masculinity. Its headline read, “Pentagon Pete Can’t Stop Posting Cringe Workout Videos.”
The former No. 2 at the FBI could not control his disgust, referring to the Beast as “The Daily Yeast” and asserting that the article’s author, unlike he and Hegseth, could not even bench press “3.1 pounds.”
“Why does it bother you that the Secretary of War (sic), to instill a culture of pride in physical conditioning and to lead from the front, is posting videos meant to motivate the others out there who maybe don’t want to work out who are in our fighting force?” Bongino said.
He continued, “He’s saying, ‘Look, if I’m doing it, you have to do it, too. If I’m going to run the place, then you’re going to do it, too.’”
Bongino, who resigned from the administration in January, then claimed that the Beast would be praising former President Joe Biden if he were the one posting workout clips while running the U.S. military amid rising tensions with Iran.
“The point is, it’s all bulls--t,” he said. “I promise you. If that was Joe Biden—forget Joe—if that was Joe Biden benching 100 pounds, they would have been like, ‘Oh my gosh. Look at this guy. Look at the vitality. He looks like a young Lou Ferrigno.’”
Bongino then took his assertions up a level, saying “they,” referring to the Beast and others in the media, “hate” what America stands for.
“Folks, they hate every single thing America stands for, and America has been built on this bedrock of hell to that—yeah, we are going to be aggressive, we are going to be entrepreneurial, we are going to take risks,” he said. “Those are all attributes that have been associated with traditional versions of manhood.”
Bongino, after saying the men’s hockey gold medal is what America is all about—something we at the Beast agree with, obviously—returned to that point again minutes later.
“Now that’s me some America,” Bongino said. “The Daily Yeast and all these leftist lunatics are so, so eager to destroy, folks. It’s an imperfect country. That’s fairly obvious...”
Bongino—a one-time cop and Secret Service agent with a failed political career, who lost a defamation suit against the Beast in 2020 and was ordered to pay thousands in attorney fees—then got distracted by his show’s live chat.
“Look at that chat blowing up,” he then pivots to say. “You guys are gonna melt the chat down. Look at that chat. American flags everywhere. God bless you all. I love being part of this. Amen, brother.”
