Bongino: Capitol riot shows '50% of security and public safety is political'
'You're never going to secure a location ... if you don't have the backing of political leaders,' Bongino tells 'Hannity'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wednesday's riot by supporters of President Trump at the U.S. Capitol exposed that "a lot went wrong" with law enforcement planning on the day, Fox News contributor Dan Bongino told "Hannity" Thursday.
"I want to talk about something [that is] the worst-kept secret in law enforcement," Bongino told host Sean Hannity. "It’s a dirty secret but it’s the worst-kept one: 50% of security and public safety is political.
"You’re never going to secure a location, a city, the Capitol or anything else if you don’t have the backing of political leaders. And the problem we have, Sean, and what you saw yesterday at the Capitol -- they have 2,300 police officers, Sean, a half-a- billion-dollar budget ... a, what, 2.3-square mile area has a bigger police budget than the city of Detroit. So what the hell went wrong?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Well, the answer is they [the local leaders] just don’t like the cops. People in big cities run by liberals -- D.C. is run by liberals -- they can’t stand the police," Bongino concluded. "They haven’t made a secret about it, they’ve actually run, some of them, on defunding the police."
Bongino went on to compare the unrest and ensuing response to the Capitol riot and Black Lives Matter protests in Washington last year.
"It's the same D.C. Metro Police Department, the same federal entities involved, why did one stop and the other didn’t? The answer is because yesterday was a disfavored group -- Trump supporters -- so there was unified political support to stop it," he said. "The siege at the White House [over the summer] was a favored group attacking the White House ... Nobody did anything about it. You think I’m making this up?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bongino said the same dynamic exists in New York City.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Why are homicides in New York City exploding despite the fact that nobody is moving around due to a lockdown? How is that happening?" he asked. "... The answer is [Mayor] Bill de Blasio, the political leadership changed. You think the cops don’t know how to handle crime? They have shown the world how to handle crime for two decades."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The political leaders are ruining policing and you’re never going to get security and public safety until we get better political leaders."