US Attorney General designee Pam Bondi fended off onslaughts from California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla at her confirmation hearing Wednesday, both of whom grilled her about President-elect Donald Trump.
Padilla, 51, went first in questioning Bondi, 59, harping on the former Florida attorney general’s visit to Philadelphia during the 2020 election aftermath where she appeared with Rudy Giuliani for a press conference and proclaimed, “We’ve won Pennsylvania.”
“Do you have any evidence of election fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election,” Padilla pressed her.
Bondi, who served as AG of Florida from 2011 to 2019, began responding, “I traveled to Pennsylvania….”
But Padilla repeatedly cut her off as she tried to finish the sentence and reminded her of the oath she had taken to serve as the Sunshine State’s top cop.
The senator’s prodding prompted Bondi to hit back.
“You pointed your finger at me and said you were speaking. Let me answer your question. I’m not going to be bullied by you, Senator Padilla,” Bondi fired back through crosstalk. “I guess you didn’t want to hear my answer about Pennsylvania.”
The Golden State Democrat asked about birthright citizenship and what the 14th Amendment says, prompting another clapback from the aspiring US attorney general.
“Senator, I’m here to answer your questions, I’m not here to do your homework and study for you,” Bondi jabbed as Padilla repeated his question. “Hey, you cut me off — can I please finish,” she added before answering that the “14th Amendment — we all know — addresses birthright citizenship.”
Earlier in the confirmation hearing, Bondi affirmed to senators that she accepts President Biden is currently the commander-in-chief, a point on which Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have frequently focused.
But perhaps the more dramatic encounter Bondi had was with Schiff, 64, who was the lead impeachment manager during Trump’s first impeachment trial.
“My first set of questions has to do whether you have the independence to say no, when you must say no,” Schiff began, before asking whether she would reject a request to investigate former special counsel Jack Smith.
“Senator, I haven’t seen the file. I haven’t seen the investigation. I haven’t looked at anything. It would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment,” she replied.
Schiff, who was a top Trump foe in the House during his first administration, needled that she seemed “reluctant to answer a simple question.” He then asked her about whether there is a factual predicate to investigate former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
“No one has asked me to investigate Liz Cheney,” she said. “We’re all so worried about Liz Cheney, senator. You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California right now is through the roof.”
“Your robberies are 87% higher than the national average — that’s what I want to focus on, senator.”
The freshman senator ignored the swipe and pressed whether Bondi had the “intestinal fortitude” to tell Trump that he lost the 2020 election. Bondi shrugged that off as a “gotcha.”
“Senator, what I can tell you is I will never play politics. You’re trying to engage me in a gotcha,” she countered through crosstalk. “I won’t play politics with any ongoing investigation like you did leaking your colleague Devon Nunes’ memo.”
Back in 2018, Schiff, who was the ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, had hit back at a memo from former Chairman Devin Nunes alleging that the Justice Department, FBI and former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were rife with bias.
Later during the exchange with Bondi, Schiff drilled down on whether she would advise Trump’s decision on whether to pardon scores of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters.
“You were censured by Congress, senator, for comments just like this that are so reckless,” Bondi said, exasperated, during that clash.
Schiff was censured in 2023 by the GOP-led House over his handling of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Trump during the first administration.
After subsequent questioning from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who went over his allotted time by a minute, Bondi later joked about deducting that minute from Schiff’s second round of questioning later in the confirmation.
During her hearing, Bondi also reassured Democrats that “there will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice” and that she doesn’t “believe Kash Patel has an enemies list.”
FBI Director designee Patel included a list of so-called “deep state” enemies in his 2022 tome “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” which has rattled Democratic critics.
