On Friday night’s Special Report, Fox News found itself in a bind—and tried to wriggle out by throwing one of its own under the bus.
The panel, hosted by Aishah Hasnie, faced a tough task: explain why the explosive Epstein Files turned out to be a dud, calm down an outraged MAGA audience, and somehow protect Donald Trump from the fallout. Their answer? Blame Dan Bongino.
Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and once a staple on Fox, is now Deputy FBI Director in the Trump administration. He’s furious over how Attorney General Pam Bondi handled the Epstein documents. He’s so upset, he told reporters he’ll quit unless Bondi resigns immediately.
That tantrum became the focus of Friday night’s discussion. And surprisingly, Fox’s own panelists didn’t hold back.
“There’s quite a bit of drama in the White House this week,” said Fox News Radio’s Josh Kraushaar. “And it looks like not only is there a clash between the attorney general and the deputy director of the FBI, but only one of the two is going to remain if you listen to some of the people on all sides that are talking about this dustup.”
Kraushaar was blunt about Bongino’s credibility. “Look, Dan Bongino was learning the lesson that it’s a lot easier to be a commentator, a pundit, a bomb thrower on the outside… And then when he’s inside government, he disappointed a lot of those grassroots followers in saying there’s nothing to see here,” he said.
He also pointed out the political pecking order. “Pam Bondi is attorney general—she ranks above Bongino… she probably right now still has more standing in the White House than Bongino.”
Philip Wegman from RealClearPolitics joined in. “If you take a step back, the MAGA base took [the Epstein conspiracy] seriously… Bongino took it seriously. Kash Patel took it seriously… My sense is that there’s serious frustration within the administration about the way the DOJ handled this.”
He reminded viewers of the long buildup. “Remember, there were all of the online influencers who had those binders outside of the White House… Then Bondi said that the FBI was allegedly withholding documents… They promised transparency… but this is a bit different.”
The deeper issue? Fox hyped the Epstein Files for months. Then, when the documents dropped, there was no smoking gun—just more vague names and redactions. Viewers felt misled. MAGA influencers wanted heads to roll. But instead of holding Trump’s DOJ accountable, Fox’s panel turned Bongino into the fall guy.
Rather than confront the mess created by its own hype and the administration’s failure to deliver, Fox took the easy way out. They attacked Bongino—one of their own former stars—while carefully protecting Trump and Bondi from direct blame.
For a network used to controlling the narrative, it was a rare moment of disarray. The MAGA base wants answers. Fox News just wants this story to go away.
Watch the video below from Fox News:
