Dan Bongino Confused By Difference Between Joe Biden Quoting N-Word in 1986 and Joe Rogan’s N-Word Tapes — Allow Me to Explain

Fox News personality and radio host Dan Bongino lashed out over a Mediaite article explaining President Joe Biden’s use of the n-word at a 1986 hearing and was extremely confused about the difference between then-Senator Biden’s use of the word and podcaster Joe Rogan’s.

At issue was an article entitled “Joe Rogan Defenders Have Been Circulating Video of Joe Biden Saying the N-Word — Here’s the Full Story,” which Bongino criticized on his radio show along with the article’s author, Tommy Christopher — who is me.

Using insulting language, he suggested to both of his listeners that Biden’s use of the slur was analogous — nay, even identical — to Mr. Rogan’s multiple uses of the word (annotations in italics mine):

So here’s the hilarity of the left-wing media, this joker at Mediaite [fact check: I do often tell jokes. I am not The Joker or even primarily a joker] who beclowns himself on a daily basis [I take at least two days off a week], this Tommy Christopher cat [I am not a cat, although I wouldn’t mind being a cat because a cat’s the only cat who knows where it’s at].

So Joe Biden got caught [he was recorded by C-Span cameras at a public hearing], you know, on a 1985 [it was 1986] tape saying the N-word too. [Biden was quoting a racist official while grilling the Reagan nominee who approved of that racist official’s voting proposal.]

So I want you to listen to the title of his piece, and I want to show you how if you flip the names, if you had any principles, it would make sense.

But here’s the title of this piece at Mediaite: “Joe Rogan defenders have been circulating a video of Joe Biden saying the N-word. Here’s the full story.”

So context matters. Does it? Because if you change the headline to “Joe Biden defenders have been circulating video of Joe Rogan saying the N-word. Here’s the full story,” You could write the same piece, but notice he doesn’t.

He only writes the piece to defend Joe Biden, proving that their principles are no principles at all. They are nothing but shrill, ridiculous, petty amateur hour political attacks, and you should ignore them.

… he bleated.

Now, I would like to help Bongino understand, and I would ordinarily just do it using Twitter, but Bongino — whose Twitter bio literally features a screenshot bragging about being blocked by someone named @nandoodles — has bravely blocked me on Twitter.

This is literally the third time I have ever mentioned Bongino, and the first non-oblique reference (somebody Google “oblique” for Dan, I’m tired).

So I have to do it here. Joe Biden, like the article says, was directly quoting a racist official during a confirmation hearing for a Reagan appointee. Even today, a direct quote like that is debatable in its propriety. Then-Senator Biden obviously felt it was necessary for the impact of the statement, but that doesn’t make it sting any less to the listener.

Mr. Rogan did not restrict his use of the word to direct quotes, as he stated in his lengthy apology video, a video in which he acknowledged the offense of what he said and apologized. Rogan himself does not consider his uses of the word permissible, although he did at the time he said it.

And Mr. Rogan also apologized for an incident in which he compared a Black neighborhood to the Planet of the Apes, and while he denied he intended the story to be a racist comparison of Black people to apes, Rogan acknowledged that it “sure sounded that way.”

The people who circulated the Biden video over the weekend did so because they hoped to deflect from an effort to, as they put it, “smear Joe Rogan as a racist.”

But if the most influential person to denounce Joe Rogan’s multiple uses of the n-word this weekend was Joe Rogan, does that mean that… Joe Rogan is smearing Joe Rogan as a racist? Did I just blow your mind, Dan?

Listen above via KCMO.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.