Dan Bongino Lashes Out at Mediaite Report and Decries Conservative ‘Vultures’ Trying to Replace Him on Radio
Dan Bongino ranted in a Facebook video about those criticizing him for opposing a vaccine mandate by the syndicator of his radio program, and attacked the conservative hosts who have not publicly backed him as “vultures” and “parasites.” He also slammed Mediaite for reporting on the story.
Bongino is immunocompromised after a cancer diagnosis and is personally vaccinated but has publicly attacked Cumulus Media for requiring their employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine. He’s been off the air for weeks, leaving the radio stations who carry his program stuck with stale reruns and drawing accusations of “virtue signaling” from some of his fellow conservative commentators.
Mediaite’s Colby Hall reported Wednesday that Bongino had few public friends in his row with Cumulus, as many in the industry suspect his stand is not as principled as he claims.
Wednesday, Bongino lashed out at his critics, posting a Facebook Live video complaining about people “leaking to the media” who were “desperate” to get him to “change the narrative” regarding vaccines, and vowing that he wouldn’t sit down and shut up. Bongino returned to hosting his show live on the air shortly after the video was posted.
Bongino said Mediaite had reached out to ask him for comment about the Hall story, in which sources questioned the true motivation for his stance on the vaccine mandate:
A source with direct knowledge of the company’s policy revealed to Mediaite that anyone on the chopping block for refusing to get the vaccine was already fired. So the notion that Bongino is taking a principled stand against mandates as a means of protecting the freedom of his colleagues doesn’t make much sense…
The self-imposed exile, sources say, is more about Bongino’s flagging commitment to continuing his three-hour daily show. There is a lot of rumbling within Cumulus — and stations that syndicate his show — that Bongino’s stand against mandates is actually a naked attempt to break a contract he does not like. His colleagues are not happy about it.
Bongino scoffed that he could get out of his contract if he wanted to without getting into this battle about vaccines, and accused the unnamed sources who leaked the information of trying to “discredit this anti-vaccine, pro-body sovereignty, pro-liberty movement.”
He took particular offense to the notion that conservative radio hosts are not supporting his vaccine mandate stand.
“Well, let me tell you what’s really going on,” said Bongino, asking his viewers to tag other conservative radio hosts when they shared his video. “You know why I’m losing their support? Because a lot of them don’t have the balls to stand up and do what I’m doing because they don’t want to lose their freaking gravy train.”
He also attacked some of the other conservative radio hosts’ companies for trying to promote their “corporate lackey” clients to take over his radio spots, saying he was proud to be a “troublemaker” and using terms like “vulture” and “parasite” to describe his rivals.
“We gonna stand up this thing, against this vaccine mandate,” asked Bongino, “or kiss the ass of the left as they take away our body sovereignty?”
Watch the video above, via Facebook.
