FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino blew up on Fox News after California Gov. Gavin Newsom torched President Donald Trump’s plan to send National Guard troops into San Francisco.
Bongino, appearing on Fox & Friends, was asked how his agency might respond if Newsom resists the deployment—something the governor vowed to do after Trump confirmed the move in an interview Sunday with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
“We don’t answer to the governor of California,” Bongino snapped. “We answer to the president, the American people, the attorney general and deputy attorney general. That’s the chain of command.”
The Trump administration’s latest deployment—framed by the president as an effort to make San Francisco “great”—drew sharp pushback from Newsom, who said “nobody wants you here” and accused Trump of trying to “ruin one of America’s greatest cities.”
Bongino wasn’t having it. “Listen, I’m not going to get into a match here,” he said, before doing exactly that. “I was going to say something different but I’ve got to control my Queens mouth on the air with Gavin Newsom. But when he says this comment, nobody wants you here? Really? That’s kind of a BS remark! The people do want us there!”
Fox host Brian Kilmeade piled on, calling Newsom an “expert on ruining cities” who “did ruin San Francisco” and “basically ruined the state.”
Despite Bongino’s insistence that “the people” are clamoring for federal troops, polling suggests otherwise. A Reuters survey from August found that only 38 percent of Americans supported Trump’s earlier federal troop takeovers in U.S. cities.
The administration has announced similar deployments to Los Angeles and Chicago. Trump said during his own Fox News interview on Sunday that he has the “unquestioned power” to carry out his latest operation.
“We’re gonna go to San Francisco,” Trump said. “The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago it went wrong, it went woke…But we’re gonna go to San Francisco and we’re gonna make it great. We’re gonna make it great. It’ll be great again. San Francisco is a great city. It won’t be great if it keeps going like this.”
“Don’t forget I can use the Insurrection Act. 50% of the presidents almost have used that,” Trump also said in the interview.
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