Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino warned Tuesday that the alleged White House terror plot relied on a “second wave” strategy, in which explosive drones were intended to serve as a distraction before crowds were directed toward snipers.
Speaking on “Fox & Friends,” Bongino discussed the planning behind the thwarted attack and what concerns him about future threats.
“This has bothered me for a long time, not just the first wave. You know, you see them when you look back to the Malcolm X shooting, you get the distraction event, and then you get the secondary event,” Bongino said.
“Well, when you do that with heavy weapons and drones, you know, the casualties would be unimaginable if something like this weren’t disrupted,” he added.
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The FBI and its law enforcement partners disrupted the plot, which was meant to target the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House over the weekend. Major figures, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, were in attendance.
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At least five people were in custody as of Monday, and investigators have noted that at least 23 individuals were potentially involved in the plot, which called for explosive drones to hit buildings near the event, force an evacuation and steer crowds toward a team of snipers. They then expected to storm the White House gates, according to officials.
Investigators revealed the suspects explicitly wanted to target “capitalist elites,” billionaires and politicians funded by AIPAC. Bongino warned this language stems from a deeper, dangerous political current.
“Notice the class warfare language amongst the plotters there,” Bongino said. “That just, again, speaks to the unbelievably charged political rhetoric in the country and this demonization of people by either their politics or their wealth or their success. So that was disturbing.”
Bongino stressed that the technological threat is evolving faster than ever, pointing to modern battlefields as proof. He warned that drones are not a future threat but a current one.
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“This technology is evolving on probably weekly, if not monthly cycles now. And don’t think that people looking to commit malicious acts, terrorists and others, haven’t picked up on this. It’s cheap. It’s very difficult to defeat,” he added.
The FBI said it first learned of the plot earlier this month, days before the event, while working with the U.S. Secret Service.
“In the days leading up to this weekend, our special agents, mission support personnel, and technical security teams worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement.
“Equally important to our protective mission is ensuring accountability through the justice system. To that end, our formal comments regarding the specifics of this case will be made through court filings.”
Bongino said that the FBI’s scope and capabilities are ready to take on these kinds of threats. He attributed the department’s decision to move away from “political priorities” as having helped realign the organization toward tracking national security threats.
“We’ve seen this before where these things can go down and the FBI, because of its global organization, can make it happen at the snap of the finger,” he said, later adding, “That’s the benefit of having a global organization with the right priorities and not political priorities.”
Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
