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Dan Bongino, if you don’t know, is an extremely popular right-wing podcast host.
But his former job as a Secret Service agent, where he protected President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, has hardcore conspiracy theorists turning on him.
The fiasco began last week with a post from the conspiratorial X account known as Isaac’s Army. The account’s name refers to small-time actor Isaac Kappy, a QAnon supporter who committed suicide in 2019.
In the post, Isaac’s Army references a popular tenet of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory based on emails published by WikiLeaks in 2016.
Some of the emails, which were obtained by Russian government hackers from the inbox of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, discussed a pizza party. Conspiracy theorists claim that the mentions of food such as hot dogs and pizza were actually coded messages about pedophilia.
Dan Bongino caught up in Pizzagate conspiracy theory
In other words, the theory goes: Since Bongino protected Obama, and Obama was the president in 2016—even though Bongino stopped working for the Secret Service in 2011—he must have been involved.
“Dan Bongino was Barack Obama’s personal secret service…. That would logically make him in charge of security for all of Obama’s Hot Dog and Pizza party’s we all know happened…” Isaac’s Army wrote.
Hardcore conspiracy theorists responded in agreement, arguing that the prominent conservative figure must be a secret child abuser aligned with Democrats.
“Oh this post is so going to get suppressed and people are going to come out the woodwork on you. But you raise a very good point…” one user responded.
“Yikes! I never thought of that! You’re right-@dbongino has all the information on the pedo parties,” another said.
Bongino responds to the conspiracy theory
The post eventually caught the attention of Bongino himself, who responded to the unfounded claims with sarcastic disdain.
“Busted! Folks, I have a secret to tell you. I used to be a Secret Service Agent. Not sure you knew that,” Bongino said sarcastically. “I’ve been doing my best to hide it for years. Even going so far as to write a book about the experience and why I walked away from it.”
After thanking “Isaac” for the posts, Bongino closed out by stating: “Friends don’t let friends fall for closeted, deep state lib accounts.”
Ironically, even in his pushback, Bongino can’t bring himself to admit that the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and Isaac’s Army are a product of far-right misinformation.
In fact, a poll in 2016 found that 46 percent of Trump voters believed the Pizzagate conspiracy theory was real and that Clinton was running a secret child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. The conspiracy theory would ultimately lead a far-right individual to show up at the pizza parlor with a rifle and open fire inside.
While Bongino has never pushed the Pizzagate claim himself, he’s been a central figure in propagating right-wing conspiracy theories such as the claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
Needless to say, you can’t feel too bad for Bongino that some of his ilk are turning against him.
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