Pamela Bondi and President-elect Donald Trump
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who helped Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, refused to unequivocally state that he lost the election during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday to become U.S. Attorney General.
If confirmed, Bondi would be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, and would have the final say on which crimes are prosecuted and which are not. Donald Trump has promised to pardon some, if not all, of those convicted of crimes related to his January 6, 2021 insurrection. Bondi has promised to investigate those inside the Justice Department who prosecuted the January 6 rioters and others connected to the attack on the Capitol and the insurrection.
Telling Bondi that “central to the peaceful competition of power in a democracy is the acceptance of the results of an election,” Democratic Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin stated, “To my knowledge, Donald Trump has never acknowledged the legal results of the 2020 election.”
“Are you prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?” Durbin asked Bondi.
“Ranking Member Durbin, President Biden is the president of the United States,” Bondi said, sidestepping the question. “He was duly sworn in and he is the President of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024.”
Having not given a direct answer, Durbin pressed on.
“Do you have any doubts that Joe Biden had the majority of votes — electoral votes — necessary to be elected president in 2020?” he asked.
“You know, Senator, all I can tell you as a prosecutor is from my first hand experience. And I accept the results,” Bondi, still not answering directly, replied.
“I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is President of the United States,” she added, “but what I can tell you is what I saw firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania, as an advocate for the campaign — I was an advocate for the campaign and I was on the ground in Pennsylvania and I saw many things there, but do I accept the results? Of course I do.”
“Do I agree with what happened in — I saw so much, you know, no one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity in our country. We should all want our elections to be free and fair and the rules and the laws to be followed,” Bondi lectured.
Durbin expressed his dissatisfaction.
“I think that question deserved yes or no, and I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren’t prepared to answer yes,” he told her.
The New York Times reported that during Wednesday’s hearing, Bondi “would not explicitly say that Mr. Trump lost in 2020.”
During the presidential campaign, Bondi vowed on Fox News that “The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones.”
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Bondi “played an early and active role in spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election.”
“The investigators will be investigated,” she added.
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Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
