Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, shared more details on Wednesday about how his new job in President Donald Trump’s administration has been impacting his personal life.
During an appearance on Fox News, Bongino repeated to host Sean Hannity that he has not made friends — and doesn’t want to have any — since he started his role in Washington, D.C.
“I don’t have any friends. I don’t want any friends. I don’t care,” he said Wednesday night. “I didn’t come here for the money.”
Hannity interjected, “You don’t go there for the money — I could tell people that for sure.”
Bongino continued: “I didn’t come here to make friends. I don’t give a damn about friends. I don’t have any friends. I don’t want any friends. I’ve got my wife. I got you, and I got a small crew of people. So I don’t need any friends.”
Bongino then suggested for those living in the nation’s capital to instead “go get a Labradoodle,” just like he has, after Hannity said D.C. residents who want friends should own a dog.
“…There are no friends in D.C.,” he said, before asking Hannity, “You’ve been doing this for what, 30 years? There are no friends here.”
Bongino’s “Hannity” appearance isn’t the first time that the second-in-command has commented in a seemingly negative manner about his life since joining the FBI. While speaking on “Fox & Friends” at the end of May, Bongino said he “gave up everything” for the role, which has been a big lifestyle change for his family.
Bongino, a former right-wing host of the podcast “The Dan Bongino Show,” said he is asked “all the time” if he enjoys the job, and he responds with a “no.”
“When the president called and asked if I would take the job… you can’t tell your audience for years, ‘Go out and do stuff, talk is cheap.’ And then when the opportunity comes to do something, ‘I didn’t mean me, I meant you.’ You’re a fraud. You don’t sound like a fraud — you are one,” Bongino said.
He added, “The president didn’t ask me to do this to like it.”
Bongino also recalled an encounter that he had with a fellow staffer, who told him that she misses him and his show. He responded to her, “I miss me too.”
“I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., you know, by myself, divorced from my wife. Not divorced, but I mean separated. And it’s hard,” he said during the interview.
Since beginning his role under Director Kash Patel in the FBI in February, both have been torched by MAGA loyalists. The pair received backlash after clarifying during an interview with Fox News that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein had committed suicide once reviewing the tapes.
Before joining the administration, they both have previously grilled the FBI for concealing secrets from the American public, including about the Epstein scandal, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the attempted assassination against Trump.
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