Exclusive – Dan Bongino Takes on Secret Service, FBI: ‘The Government Is So Messed Up’

Dan Bongino, host of The Dan Bongino Show and a former Secret Service agent, told Breitbart News on Sunday that “there is simply no way” the agency does not know whose cocaine was left in White House.

The Secret Service closed its investigation last week into who left cocaine in a cubbyhole in the West Wing, the agency stating that it was “not able” to “single out a person of interest” because of a lack of physical evidence. However, a security source has contradicted the Secret Service, telling Soldier of Fortune magazine White House officials have confirmed who brought cocaine into the White House via fingerprint analysis. Some veteran investigators have said they believe the Secret Service is engaging in a “cover-up.”

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in West Palm Beach, Florida, Bongino discussed the logistics of “Cocaine-Gate” from the perspective of someone who used to work for Secret Service, and pressed his former employer not to become corrupt like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“Listen, I love the Secret Service, OK? It’s the reverse 80/20 rule. You know the 80/20 rule? Twenty-percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. My experience in the Secret Service is 80 percent of the guys are great and 20 percent, you know, not terrible, but not so much,” Bongino said at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference. 

“You don’t really find that in any other organization. Having said that, I have to look at this objectively now. I’m on the media side now. It’s not my job to be a propagandist for anyone. I can tell you, I’ve probably received no less than 50, let’s just say, communications from retired friends of mine who are disgusted by this. There is simply no way they do not know who that person [is],” he continued. 

Bongino laid out, “without giving up any intricate details” how security works in the West Wing, and broke down an estimation of how many people were probably around at the time the drugs were left in the cubbyhole.  

“The East Wing, the residence side, tons of people go through there: ushers, tour groups, everything. The West Wing is tiny. It’s no bigger than a big apartment in Manhattan like a rich person would have. It’s not life you saw in the TV show the West Wing where they are walking down these expansive hallways. There’s none of that. The hallways are like maybe ten yards long — it’s a big circle,” he said. 

“So on the weekends, it’s really limited. There’s probably less than 1,000 people who went through there. So you’re telling me with a straight face that a non-porous substance, a plastic baggie, where a latent print could be pulled easily, that you couldn’t find a print, and then you’re telling me you really couldn’t narrow down the suspects?” he added. 

Bongino noted that, regardless of the fact that the substance found was cocaine, someone was able to bring white powder “maybe 100 feet away from the president where those cubbies are.”  

“Someone brought white powder in and you have no idea who it is? I mean, come on man,” he said. “You’ve got a whole readout of people. I mean, every one of those people should be interviewed — everyone. Listen, I’ve defended them when I thought they got a rough shake, not this time, man. That director needs to tighten it up.”

When asked how he would run the investigation if he was in charge, Bongino gave a further breakdown of who Secret Service should interview and whether any drug testing would be involved. 

“This is not complicated. They already are drug tested, the staff and the Secret Service. So, they are drug tested now. So you can say 1,000 people went through the West Wing, that’s probably about right on that weekend. It was found on Sunday, probably left on a Friday or a Saturday night. The president was out. Hunter Biden leaves on Friday,” he said. “Alright, so now you’ve got, say 1,000 people. You can automatically dump the Secret Service and the staff. They don’t use the cubbyholes, they wouldn’t have left anything in the cubbies.”

“So now you’re down to, realistically, 250 people,” he continued. “A guy or a woman had white powder in the White House. You’re interviewing every single one of those 250 people. There’s none of this ‘oh, we don’t have enough resources.’ You know, the government had enough resources for January 6. And realistically too, not to belabor the point, you could probably eliminate another 100 right away: a couple of older folks who came in and didn’t use the cubbies. You can’t interview 100 people? That’s garbage. I don’t buy it.”

Bongino ultimately said he does not know if the American people will find out who left cocaine in the White House, and begged Secret Service not to “burn that agency to the ground like the FBI did.”

“Listen man, the government is so messed up and so corrupt right now, it’s really sad. Argue all you want about the deep state being a conspiracy theory or whatever, that’s all bullsh*t. It’s real,” he said. “We’ve already seen corruption in the intel community, the FBI. Are we going to find out? The answer is I don’t know….I can’t predict the future. But let me tell you this — I’m just looking in the camera and begging the Secret Service leadership now: just don’t do to America what the FBI did.” 

“I mean, that’s a respected institution, pretty much non-partisan, worthy of trust and confidence — that’s their motto, it literally says ‘worthy of trust and confidence.’ Don’t burn that agency to the ground like the FBI did. We can’t take anymore,” he said. 

Bongino had more strong words for the FBI and FBI Director Christopher Wray when asked to weigh in on comments from Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) last week claiming Wray is “doing his very best.”

“Nah, that’s bullsh*t. Twinkies-Chris Christie and this other guy — I like Ken Buck a lot. Ken Buck has been a decent guy on a lot of stuff. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Bongino said. 

“This guy [Wray] has been in charge with the targeting of pro-lifers, the targeting of Catholics, the targeting of parents at school boards, the SpyGate operation and the aftermath — what else do you need to hear with this guy? This guy has been a total train wreck,” he continued. 

“By what independent measure is that a good job? If you were running a private company and that had happened, you would’ve been fired and the shareholders would have revolted. Well America’s got shareholders too: they’re called freaking citizens, and we’re tired of this stuff with these guys. We sold the stock on the deep state a long time ago. It’s time for this guy to move on,” he said. “Every Republican candidate out there running for office, if they tell you this guy is going to stay, then throw their vote right in the garbage because they ain’t worth it.”

Bongino added that he is not only a fan of moving the FBI out of the D.C. Swamp, something Republican lawmakers are proposing, but moving all federal agencies out of the area. 

“I love it, yes. I love it. I say move the FBI to Florida…move it to Alabama…It’s a great idea. I worked in D.C. and the problem is you get kind of inculcated in that swampy culture,” he noted.

“I say not just the FBI. Pull them all out of D.C. Put some in Omaha, Nebraska. I mean, spread it around. Maybe they will get inculcated in this place that politicians call flyover country but we call home. And maybe they will act a little bit more like ‘this is home’ and not some swampy institution,” he said. 

The conservative commentator also plugged his new book “The Gift of Failure,” which is available for pre-order now. 

“You read all these books about all these people telling you how great they are, right? ‘Oh look I’m so wonderful, here’s how I succeeded.’ So I told my wife, I’m going to write a book about everything I effed-up. And it is everything,” he said. “I screwed up so much stuff in my life, and the thing is, you dust off, you get up, and you fix it. So the book is really raw, I tell a lot of stories I probably shouldn’t tell, but about things I really screwed up and how every single one of those failures was a gift.” 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.