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Ex-Secret Service agent and conservative media personality Dan Bongino picked as FBI deputy director

Thank you folks. Thank you all for coming out. It’s been *** very emotional day. It’s been *** very emotional 18 months for my family and I. I just had *** very pleasant conversation with Senator Cardin in the back, and I want to congratulate him. The great part about our American process is when it’s all said and done, we do it with this. We don’t do it with this, and we shake hands when we’re done, and it is. He’s been *** gentleman. He’s been *** class act. We may have political differences. We have from the beginning, but we’d actually become close friends towards the end. Matter of fact, we spent some time at an early voting location together in Townsend and spent more time talking to each other than we did to voters. So he’s *** good man, folks, and it’s on us now. He’s our senator moving forward, and that’s what we do here in this great country. So he was *** class act and I do deeply appreciate *** good campaign on his part. Folks, I’d be remiss right now if I didn’t thank first my wife and my daughter. You know, put in perspective what we did. You know, we’re here tonight, folks, not to celebrate *** victory or defeat. We’re here to celebrate the process we all went through. And I mean we all went through. This campaign was started 18 months ago, my dining room table with Brian, Paula, and me sitting at *** table, putting together *** press release. Frankly, we didn’t even understand what we were doing at that point. But we knew one thing. We knew we had an idea we believed in, and we knew that idea was *** little bit different than what we had now. And I knew most importantly, it was an idea I was willing to fight for, and I knew it was an idea my wife was willing to sacrifice for. And look what we did. Look what we built. From our campaign manager Jim who started early in the Starbucks, which was our informal office before we actually had an office outside of outside of my house in Saverna Park, DeCarlo, who was our first person hired, who managed to tell the press, we’ve got *** fantastic eye here. She lied for us, but thank you so much. Thank you to Brandon, my first volunteer who I remember giving that speech. I remember it like it was yesterday, and I remember looking in the back of the room and seeing Brandy, nodding his head, and I remember Mike Harris, who had worked for the Prince George’s County Republican Central Committee saying, no, you can’t have him, he’s mine. And I said, oh, sure, and as I walked out, I said, hey, slip me your email address. 18 months later he’s still with me. Ali and Kelly and Sharon, our deputy campaign manager, for every ounce of sweat equity you put into this building this organization from scratch, I met Sharon in the Black Hawk, *** barbecue restaurant in Frederick, and said, help us, help us, please, we’re getting overloaded with volunteer requests. And I said we just don’t have the ability to handle this, and she started taking notes in the book and said, You’re my guy, and that was it. We kept promoting her out of positions. To all the regional coordinators and county coordinators who spent days with me in the cold and in the rain, you know who you are, sign waving, greeting voters at the metro, shaking hands, refusing to forfeit one county or one block for all those doors that were knocked on. I’m sorry. Just growing up I never thought I’d be here. I grew up above *** bar at sixty-Fourth Place, Myrtle Avenue. Never thought I’d be celebrating with the United States congressman celebrating this process. Folks, it’s, it’s been an honor. And um I’m gonna try to get through this so, just bear with me, but There’s *** friend of mine, Andrew Bradley, who, uh, he’s always good for giving me things I need to keep in my head for later on, and he told me that story when I gave that field the steel speech on *** lawyer’s mall that everybody had watched on YouTube. Andrew had sent me *** text the other day and said, please look up this verse in the Bible, and this applies to you. So today in my car, I did, and I just wanted to read to you these three lines. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Thank you. Oh Thank you again, folks.

Ex-Secret Service agent and conservative media personality Dan Bongino picked as FBI deputy director

Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who has penned best-selling books, ran unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as FBI deputy director.President Donald Trump announced the appointment Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.” He called the announcement “great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice.”Video above: Dan Bongino’s concession speech in 2012The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats are concerned that the president could seek to target his adversaries. Bongino would serve under Kash Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director at the White House on Friday and who has signaled his intent to reshape the bureau, including by relocating hundreds of employees from its Washington headquarters and placing greater emphasis on the FBI’s traditional crime-fighting duties.The deputy director serves as the FBI’s second-in-command and is traditionally a career agent responsible for the bureau’s day-to-day law enforcement operations.Bongino, 49, served on the presidential details for then-Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, before becoming a popular right-wing figure. He became one of the leading personalities in the Make America Great Again political movement to spread false information about the 2020 election.For a few years following Rush Limbaugh’s death in 2021, he was chosen for a radio show on the same time slot of the famous commentator.Bongino worked for the New York Police Department from 1997 through 1999, before joining the Secret Service. He began doing commentary on Fox News more than a decade ago, and had a Saturday night show with the network from 2021 to 2023. He is now a host of The Dan Bongino Show, one of the most popular podcasts, according to Spotify.Bongino ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2012 and for congressional seats in 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Florida, after moving in 2015. He lost the three races.During an interview last fall, Bongino asked Trump to commit to forming a commission to reform the Secret Service, calling it a “failed” agency and criticizing it for the two assassination attempts last year.”That guy should have been nowhere near you,” Bongino said about the man who authorities say camped outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, before he was spotted with a rifle.During the same interview, Trump praised the Secret Service agent who saw the rifle’s barrel coming out of a bush.Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON —

President Donald Trump announced the appointment Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.” He called the announcement “great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice.”

Video above: Dan Bongino’s concession speech in 2012

The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats are concerned that the president could seek to target his adversaries. Bongino would serve under Kash Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director at the White House on Friday and who has signaled his intent to reshape the bureau, including by relocating hundreds of employees from its Washington headquarters and placing greater emphasis on the FBI’s traditional crime-fighting duties.

The deputy director serves as the FBI’s second-in-command and is traditionally a career agent responsible for the bureau’s day-to-day law enforcement operations.

Bongino, 49, served on the presidential details for then-Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, before becoming a popular right-wing figure. He became one of the leading personalities in the Make America Great Again political movement to spread false information about the 2020 election.

For a few years following Rush Limbaugh’s death in 2021, he was chosen for a radio show on the same time slot of the famous commentator.

Bongino worked for the New York Police Department from 1997 through 1999, before joining the Secret Service. He began doing commentary on Fox News more than a decade ago, and had a Saturday night show with the network from 2021 to 2023. He is now a host of The Dan Bongino Show, one of the most popular podcasts, according to Spotify.

Bongino ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2012 and for congressional seats in 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Florida, after moving in 2015. He lost the three races.

During an interview last fall, Bongino asked Trump to commit to forming a commission to reform the Secret Service, calling it a “failed” agency and criticizing it for the two assassination attempts last year.

“That guy should have been nowhere near you,” Bongino said about the man who authorities say camped outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, before he was spotted with a rifle.

During the same interview, Trump praised the Secret Service agent who saw the rifle’s barrel coming out of a bush.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.