One of former President Donald Trump's staunchest defenders — and a prominent critic of the handling of Jan. 6 by Democrats and anti-Trump forces in Congress and the Justice Department — is out at Fox News.
Dan Bongino, a cancer survivor, hosted a weekend program on the network. He announced Thursday on his Rumble podcast he is out at Fox News, "with no malice toward anybody."
"I have some personal news to share today," Bongino said, starting his "Dan Bongino Show" at 11 a.m. Thursday. "I'm kind of dreading a little bit the beginning of the show."
"Folks, regretfully, last week was my last show on Fox News, on the Fox News Channel," he continued. "It's tough. It's tough to say that."
He added: "It's not some big conspiracy, I promise you. There's no acrimony. This wasn't some, like, WWE brawl that happened. We just couldn't come to terms on an extension, and that's really it."
Not only was he a staunch pro-Trump voice, but he was an animated defender of law and order and supporter of police.
The former New York City Police Department officer (1995 to 1999) was a Secret Service agent from 1999-2011 before dabbling in running for office as a Republican and then becoming a conservative political pundit.
"The sad part is, I really enjoyed myself there, and you know, they were good to me for 10 years," Bongino said, getting a little choked up when he was thanking his former team.
"Why's this hard?"
Bongino praised his ratings.
"We went out as No. 1," he said. "We were the No. 1 last week, and we were the No. 1 show about 90% of the time."
Bongino warned his listeners about fake news stemming from his departure.
"I promise you, you're going to read a lot of left-wing articles about some nonsense," he said. "I'm guaranteeing you, on my reputation, it is all made up. It's just a simple, contract thing, and that's it. No more complicated than that."
Bongino admitted his equity in Rumble was "one of the reasons, but not the reason."
"I like being on free speech platforms," he said. "It's why we separated from YouTube."