Pam Bondi

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi took her seat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, her confirmation to be Donald Trump’s new attorney general almost a foregone conclusion. Her home state senator, Rick Scott, offered a glowing recommendation in his introduction, calling Bondi’s nomination a “home run” and a “grand slam.” But throughout her testimony, Bondi was incapable of giving a direct answer to the question, posed in various ways, of who won the 2020 election. If her introduction was full of sports metaphors, her testimony itself was more of a circus performance, with Bondi clumsily walking the tightrope between what she knew she had to say to get confirmed and what she knew she had to say to stay in Donald Trump’s good graces. She made it clear in the process that if she falls off, it will be in his direction. Bondi possesses the essential element for any Trump nominee, loyalty, and she’s not afraid to wear it on her sleeve.

On paper, Bondi has experience that is relevant to running the Justice Department. As Florida’s Attorney General, she said she supervised about 300 people, which is a lot, albeit a hundred-plus people fewer than the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, let alone the other 93 U.S. Attorneys’ offices, Main Justice personnel in Washington, D.C., and the four law enforcement agencies that are part of DOJ: FBI, DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Marshal’s Service. The massive nature of DOJ is one of the reasons so many former deputy attorneys general, like Eric Holder and Bill Barr, go on to the top job. Trump’s Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, fell out of favor during the last administration and doesn’t seem to have been considered for the job.

Bondi concluded her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee by claiming America will have “one tier of justice for all” if she is confirmed. It is an interesting comment for someone who has agreed to serve as attorney general for a convicted felon—one who was able to leverage his ability to pay for high priced lawyers to delay his two federal cases past the point of no return. Bondi’s commitment to fight opioids is encouraging, but her pretense that it has not been a priority for the Biden administration (as it was for the Trump and Obama administrations ahead of it) was disingenuous.

Confirmation hearings are no longer an opportunity for senators to engage in an inquiry into a nominee’s bona fides. They don’t contribute much for a senator who wants to take the Constitutional duty to “advise and consent” on a president on his nominees seriously. Often, it’s just a chance to score political points and make a sound bite or two for the evening news. But there were some disturbing moments in Bondi’s testimony nonetheless, particularly disturbing because of the near certainty of her confirmation.

It started with Senator Dick Durbin, who told Bondi he believed she had the basic qualifications, but he was worried about her “ability to say no.” He pointed out that saying no to Trump comes with a cost, but didn’t nail her down on whether she’d be willing to pay it. He asked—and this became a key theme for the day—whether Trump lost to Biden in 2020. Bondi refused to say that, retreating to the position that Biden was sworn in and is president. She said that there had been a peaceful transition of power.

Under further questioning, Bondi declined to agree with Durbin that Biden received more votes than Trump did in 2020, at one point skating onto the thin ice of election denialism, saying she saw “many things” on the ground in Pennsylvania. She also declined to say Trump made an illegal ask of Georgia’s secretary of state when he called to ask him to find the votes he needed to win the state. She said she would need to hear the whole tape before weighing in—as if any American, let alone the nominee to be attorney general nominee, hasn’t already.

The same people who saw fraudulently cast ballots around every corner in 2020 (at least in majority Democratic boxes) seem to think it was all good in 2024. Apparently, in the fact-free universe, these things only go one way.

When Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Bondi if she has ever had an enemies list, she gave a dismissive snicker and responded that she did not. When she realized he was backing into questions about FBI nominee Kash Patel, who she would have responsibility for supervising as attorney general, asking her if she would have hired someone who did have such a list as Florida attorney general, she disputed the premise. “I don’t believe he has an enemies list,” she said, following up with “there will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.” Has she met her new boss?

Bondi also waved off questions about her recorded comment that “prosecutors will be prosecuted,” insisting that the senator had left off her qualifier, “if bad,” as if that somehow erased the fact that she was referring to prosecutors who prosecuted Donald Trump. This is Bondi, cast in the role of Alice in Justice-Land. She had similarly elusive responses when asked about Trump’s plan to pardon January 6 offenders. She would have to look at them on a case-by-case basis, she said, but was against violence towards police, ignoring that Trump has pre-promised at least some pardons.

Make no mistake about it, Pam Bondi is a Donald Trump loyalist. And, if you won’t say no to Donald Trump when it comes to the Big Lie, what will you say no to him about? When it comes to the important question of the Justice Department’s independence from the president’s demands, Pam Bondi doesn’t inspire confidence. What’s at stake in her answers is whether she can resist banana-republic creep, where a president could use the power of criminal prosecution to punish his perceived enemies and give his friends a pass. That’s too much power for any leader, let alone a president that Supreme Court has absolved of any responsibility for criminal acts so long as they are executed as part of his official duties.

Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono had another go at Bondi over her election denialism. “Who won the 2020 presidential election?” she asked. Bondi again responded that Joe Biden was the current president. Senator Hirono did not ease up: “You cannot say who won the 2020 election.” Bondi stared at her, silent, no response. “It's disturbing that you can't give voice to that fact,” Hirono chastised her.

The best Bondi had to offer was the promise that “politics will not play a part” in a Justice Department under her leadership. Ones hopes she can live up to that promise, but the problem was, she never backed it up on key issues. Ted Cruz got it right today when he said he didn’t know that there was a more important job in this new administration than attorney general. Given Trump’s proclivities during his first administration, there is every reason for Bondi to understand in advance that her fidelity to the rule of law will be forged in the crucible of war.

Bondi will almost certainly be confirmed. She is not Kash Patel or Tulsi Gabbard. In an era where even a serial adulterer, alleged drunk, and accused rapist—Pete Hegseth, who Republicans say they have the votes to confirm—can sail through, there is every reason to believe she will be the next attorney general of the United States. It’s clear she possesses the essential quality Trump seeks in an attorney general: she is loyal to the boss. We should be able to expect so much more from our attorney general.

We’re in this together,

Joyce