DAN DECIMATED

Newsom Fact Checks ‘Podcaster Dan’ Bongino’s Crime Flex

The California governor has taken aim at “Podcaster Dan,” after Trump confirmed the latest National Guard deployment.

Gavin Newsom has called out FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s claims that his agency lowered San Francisco’s crime rate, amid their spat over President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy troops in the city.

The California governor tweeted a San Francisco Chronicle headline on Monday that said the city’s homicide numbers are “on track to be the lowest since the 1950s.” Bongino retorted that it was due to the FBI’s “early efforts” in conjunction with local police “to CRUSH violent crime.”

Newsom shut down Bongino’s attempt to pat himself on the back—following the agency’s violent crime crackdown—tweeting back two headlines showing the dip in homicides came before Trump’s second term even began.

“FACT CHECK: Donald Trump wasn’t even in office when crime started hitting historic lows,” Newsom wrote, sharing a Dec. 2024 NBC headline. “Podcaster Dan has no idea what’s going on.”

Newsom’s press office shared an ABC headline from the same month that said homicide rates hit a “60-year low.”

They also took a jab at the former host of “The Dan Bongino Show,” writing, “Time to go back to podcasting, Dan.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said the three-month initiative, “Operation Summer Heat,” led to over 8,000 arrests. It’s unclear how many were in San Francisco.

Trump further escalated the crackdown after confirming a National Guard deployment in a Sunday interview with Fox News, saying, “They want us in San Francisco.”

Newsom, who was the city’s mayor for seven years, said “nobody wants you here” and accused the president of trying to “ruin one of America’s greatest cities.”

Patel’s second-in-charge took issue with Newsom’s comments in a Monday appearance on Fox & Friends.

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“I was going to say something different but I’ve got to control my Queens mouth on the air with Gavin Newsom,” he said. “But when he says this comment, nobody wants you here? Really? That’s kind of a BS remark! The people do want us there!”

A Reuters survey from August found that just 38 percent of Americans supported Trump’s federal troop deployments in U.S. cities.

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Bongino railed against Newsom further after he was asked how his agency would respond if the California governor resisted the deployment.

“We don’t answer to the governor of California,” Bongino said. “We answer to the president, the American people, the attorney general and deputy attorney general. That’s the chain of command.”

The Daily Beast reached out to the FBI for comment.

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Ethan CotlerBreaking News Intern

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