According to Politico, Dan Bongino––a Fox News contributor, former NRATV personality, and former NYPD officer––is “expected to testify [today] in a high-profile House Judiciary Committee hearing on police brutality.” The hearing comes just two days after Congressional Democrats unveiled the Justice in Policing Act––a bill that would take several necessary steps to address police brutality, racial profiling, and other fundamental problems in our law enforcement system.
NRATV, where Bongino worked until December 2018, was shut down partly because, as the NRA itself put it, NRATV aired content that “some NRA leaders found distasteful and racist” and was little more than a “dystopian cultural rant that deterred membership growth.” Some of the more racist NRATV content included host Dana Loesch putting KKK hoods on Thomas the Tank Engine characters; a segment in which a correspondent claimed the “blatant racism and violence we’re seeing from people like the Black Lives Matter crowd” could lead to mass rape and torture of white people; and hosting a contributor to a white nationalist publication 32 times.
Here’s what you need to know about Bongino before today’s hearing:
According to a new Media Matters report, Bongino has “has defended law enforcement, maligned Black Lives Matter, and questioned whether police killing of George Floyd was racially motivated” in recent weeks. Findings from the report include:
- On Hannity, Bongino said “I wouldn’t inject race” into the killing of George Floyd.
- Bongino appeared on the December 3, 2014, edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and “repeatedly insisted police officers do not inherently view Black men as a threat and said the systemic racism in society at large is an ‘easy excuse’ when discussing police brutality.”
- A week after Philando Castile was killed by police, Bongino tweeted “you’re either with the cops or you’re with Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton.”
On a recent Fox News appearance, Bongino said that it’s “just not true” that there are systemically racist police departments.
- When asked about NYPD Commissioner Shea’s apology, Bongino said: “I’m unsure what he was saying about apologizing for a history of racial bias as if it’s a systemic problem with the NYPD.”
- He added that, “[people are] implying that somehow the police departments have some mass problem with race––that there are systemically racist police departments. That is just not true.”
Bongino vilifies anyone who criticizes law enforcement, but often does so himself.
- Bongino has claimed that there is a “war on cops,” often uses the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter.
- When NFL players began kneeling to boycott police brutality––Bongino frequently tweeted about boycotting the NFL. Much of his vitriol is focused on Colin Kaepernick, whose protest he has characterized as “self-Serving, ignorant, immature, anti-American.” In an appearance on NRATV, he added that “There are better ways to fight for the disadvantaged than crapping on a flag that’s been fought for by much braver people than you.”
- Despite this supposed “war on cops,” Bongino has often criticized law enforcement himself. He has consistently vilified law enforcement officers at the FBI for conducting legal investigations into President Trump, and he also criticized the police’s use of force when they arrested Roger Stone.
