The chaos on Capitol Hill on Wednesday exposed “media hypocrisy” in how President Trump and his administration are covered, according to Dan Bongino.
The conservative commentator, who said his interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity might be his “toughest appearance” ever on the network, passionately made the case that there wasn’t the same degree of outrage months ago when the Secret Service rushed Trump to a bunker with protests raging in front of the White House.
“We have roundly condemned the violence tonight on this network. Everyone, period. That’s it. Where was the media, Sean, when my Secret Service friends were calling me with a mob outside of the White House during the summer of protest who were genuinely in fear for the first time? I am not kidding. This is not a joke. I was on the receiving end of those calls,” Bongino said.
Bongino, who stressed there was a lack of planning to protect the U.S. Capitol, is himself a former Secret Service agent.
“They felt like there was a chance the White House could fall that night,” Bongino said of the Secret Service. “Where was the media the next day? They were making fun of President Trump for being evacuated by his security detail, not his choice, into the bunker. That was their narrative the next day. Where were the mass condemnations there? Where was that? The answer is it wasn’t there. It became an opportunity to take out Trump. Because why? There isn’t one guiding set of principles in this country. And that’s why the media tonight, while we are condemning the violence, is obsessed that we don’t mention an autopsy of how we got here because of their role in it.”
“The Chris Cuomos of the world, who were wondering where it says you should assemble in peace. In the damn Constitution, knucklehead! Did you read the peaceable assembly line? That’s where it says it. We’ve been principled on that. We’ve been principled tonight,” Bongino said, knocking the CNN host. “Where were you? … You were nowhere. The only people freaking out tonight are the people without principles. And that’s not me. And that’s not anyone else I know here.”
Bongino was reacting to a day that started with pro-Trump protests in Washington, D.C., before Congress met to count the Electoral College results and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Around the time lawmakers in the House and Senate began the process, people gathered, at Trump’s behest, outside the U.S. Capitol. Some broke through law enforcement and got into the building, where one woman was shot and killed by law enforcement amid the violence that prompted lawmakers to evacuate and hunker down.
Hours later, with the U.S. Capitol grounds secured, the delayed certification process resumed.
