Over the weekend, conservative radio host Dan Bongino was seen being “forcibly removed” from a Palm Beach restaurant.
Politico reporter Daniel Lippman shared the interaction on Twitter, and when asked about what happened, Bongino said “You’ll have to tune in to my podcast on Monday for the real story”.
On Monday, Bongino — who recently celebrated the second anniversary of his radio show hitting national syndication — shared his side of the story, arguing that the situation was not as it appeared.
“So, kind of an interesting weekend,” Bongino joked before delving into the situation. “The Bongino Rule applies. Wait 24 to 72 hours before you draw any final conclusions about a story because the first version is typically bullshit. So the Bongino Rule even applies when it comes to stories about Bongino…I’ll show you the genesis of how a fake news story works today.”
The radio host then shared that he, his wife, and a group of couples were out celebrating a friend’s birthday when they entered the Palm Beach restaurant.
“We’ve been having a good time for like an hour and a half or so. They ordered a bottle service for my friends, it’s a birthday, so I pick up the tab. It’s the right thing to do,” said Bongino. “We leave the lady a nice tip. Everybody’s happy…So we’re getting ready to leave. Everybody’s getting ready to walk out again nothing interesting. I look next to me over my shoulder and I see this ruckus and I see this guy he’s got this woman like in a bear hug dragging her out of this place. Like in a bear hug. This is like UFC style. This is a pretty big dude. And I noticed, ‘Gosh, that bracelet looks familiar. That’s Paula’s (his wife’s) bracelet.
“So, of course, by the time I processed what’s going on, the guy’s already outside and put Paula down. Thankfully, I thought he was gonna slam her on the ground or something the way this was going down.
“So I’m screaming at this guy like, ‘Get your hands off my wife’. Obviously, you gotta defend your woman. But we gotta go because I realized — you know how it is, unfortunately, when you get a public name everything turns into a thing right away…I figured it’s only a matter of time before somebody gets a picture of this.”
Bongino shared that Lippman had asked him if he had been thrown out of the club, which the radio host denied. He claims Lippman ran with the story anyway. Bongino argued that Lippman failed to do his homework, and the entire situation reveals how “fake news stories” are fabricated and then promoted in the current media landscape.
