national anthem

In a week full of of political frustration, former Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino is blasting Hillary Clinton for blaming racism and uninformed women for her defeat, NFL players for not standing for our national anthem, and the latest failure of Republicans to address Obamacare.

Bongino served 12 years in the U.S. Secret Service after spending multiple years before that with the NYPD.  Since retiring from the Secret Service in 2011, Bongino ran twice for the House of Representatives and once for U.S. Senate.  He is also a conservative commentator and author of the new book “Protecting the President: An Inside Account of the Troubled Secret Service in an Era of Evolving Threats.”

Bongino served on the protective detail for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  In 2000, he was part of the detail protecting First Lady Hillary Clinton as she campaigned for U.S. Senate in New York.  He says it was a nightmare as Mrs. Clinton, through her staff, made it clear they were to protect the candidate but never be visible so the public would see her as “approachable.”

As Clinton makes the rounds promoting her new book on the 2016 campaign, Bongino says he is infuriated by Clinton’s attitudes towards those who did not support her.  As an unsuccessful candidate in a very close race, Bongino says he knows how tough it is to lose, but he says Hillary is taking her frustration to a different level.

“Now it’s not that she lost and she’s blaming people.  It’s that she lost because we’re all racists and women who voted for Trump are all unacceptable examples of females.  It’s so personally condescending that I felt the need to tell people who Hillary really is,” said Bongino.

On Monday, Bongino tweeted, “I worked with Hillary. Hillary is an obnoxious, rude, condescending, fraud who cares about ONE thing-herself.”

He doubled down later in the week.

“I’ve seen her behind the scenes.  She’s not a good person.  She’s condescending.  She’s rude.  She’s obnoxious.  She’s fake.  She’s a fraud.  And the fact she gets to go out now on this national scale on this book tour and basically indict every single group or person who didn’t vote for her is really grotesque,” said Bongino.

The new book is the first time Bongino has spoken out on his experiences as a Secret Service agent.  While acknowledging the culture of remaining mum about while on detail, Bongino says speaking out is warranted in the case of Hillary Clinton.

“I get it.  There is an omerta in the Secret Service.  I opened up with this.  I understand that, but I think there are times it’s more appropriate to set the record straight, and the record on Hillary is clear.  She’s a fraud and she’s a fake.  Don’t believe a word she says,” said Bongino.

After putting his life on the line as a police officer and Secret Service agent, Bongino is also appalled at the extent of protests taking place by NFL players during the national anthem.

“I think these guys are a disgrace.  They’re a total disgrace to this country, to our veterans, to our police officers, to people who put out everything.  That flag means something to them.  It’s not a tablecloth.  It’s not a curtain.  This isn’t some joke and it’s really an absolute disgrace that these guys are able to kneel and embarrass our republic like this.

“This is an issue that really hits me deep beneath the skin.  These guys should be humiliated and yet the far left celebrates them as heroes.  It’s a joke,” said Bongino.

During his congressional campaigns, Bongino, like virtually all other Republican candidates, promised to repeal Obamacare if elected to office.  Senate Republicans failed again this week to advance a bill, this one to block grant federal dollars back to the states.

Bongino says the GOP’s inability to get something passed when it controls all the levers of legislative power in Washington is unacceptable.

“This is probably the greatest political disaster and broken promise of our generation.  Is there another way to frame this thing?  Every single Republican in the House or the Senate – outside of Susan Collins, who’s not a Republican, she’s literally a Republican in name only – ran on the issue of repealing Obamacare.  Yet when it came time to do instead of talk, what did they do?  They all folded like cheap suits,” said Bongino.

He fears this series of failures on Obamacare exposes the weakness of Republicans but suspects President Trump won’t take as much heat on this as Congress.

“This is going to have ramifications long past this election.  I think this hurts Republicans.  It doesn’t hurt Donald Trump.  I’m not a Trump acolyte.  I support the president.  I just think this isn’t going to effect Trump.  He’s managed to distance himself from this really pathetic shell of a party we have now,” said Bongino.