Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s nominee for the next U.S. attorney general, repeatedly refused to explicitly state that the president-elect lost the 2020 presidential election while she was grilled under oath during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Bondi evaded a direct answer when asked by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin whether she can say Trump lost in 2020.
“President Biden is the president of the United States, he was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States,” she replied.
She said Trump “left office and he was overwhelmingly elected in 2024” but suggested the 2020 results were fraudulent.
Pam Bondi testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 15 during her confirmation hearing for U.S. attorney general under Donald Trump (AP)
“Do I accept the results? Of course I do,” she said. “No one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issue with election integrity.”
“I think that question deserved a yes or no,” Durbin replied. “I think the length of your question means you weren’t prepared to say yes.”
Asked again by Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono, Bondi replied: “Joe Biden is the president of the United States.”
Hirono said there is a difference between acknowledging who is president and who won.
“You can’t say who won the 2020 election. It’s disturbing you can’t give voice to that fact,” she said.
Bondi did not respond.
Bondi joined then-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in Pennsylvania just after Election Day in 2020 when she declared Trump “won” the state while there were still 1 million ballots left to be counted. She then went on Fox News to declare there was “evidence of cheating” and “fake ballots.”
In another fierce round of questions, Democratic Senator Alex Padilla demanded to know whether she had any evidence. She refused to answer.
“You cut me off when I was speaking,” she said. “I’m not going to be bullied by you. … I guess you don’t want to hear my answer.”
Senator Adam Schiff — who was a House prosecutor during Trump’s first impeachment, when Bondi represented Trump — pressed her on whether she would investigate Jack Smith and former congresswoman Liz Cheney.
“That’s a hypothetical,” she replied.
“No, it’s not a hypothetical,” he said. “The president has called for this — you are aware of this, aren’t you?”
He asked her if she has the “independence” and “intestinal fortitude” to admit Trump lost in 2020.
“What I can tell you is I will never play politics,” she said. “You’re trying to get me in a gotcha.”
Senator Adam Schiff grilled Pam Bondi on whether she was the ‘intestinal fortitude’ to stand up to Trump (AP)
Throughout her testimony, Bondi committed herself to the Constitution and to what she called “back to basics” work at the Department of Justice, striking at what she has called the partisan “weaponization” of the agency against perceived political enemies — echoing claims from Trump and his allies who have characterized the federal indictments of the former president as a politically motivated conspiracy.
But she did not explicitly rule out prosecuting Trump’s targets after senators asked her to explain her statements that “prosecutors will be prosecuted” under his administration.
Durbin said her experience and competence are not under scrutiny, but rather her ability “to say to the president of the United States, ‘you’re wrong.’”
When asked whether she would ever drop a case if Trump commanded it, Bondi said she would not have accepted the nomination if she thought that would happen.
She also claimed to have never heard Trump’s call demanding Georgia election officials “find” enough votes for his victory, nor did she claim to have known about Trump calling January 6 defendants “hostages” and “patriots.” Bondi also said she would “follow the law” when it comes to the appointment of special counsels — despite joining court briefings to argue that Jack Smith was illegally hired.
The former Florida attorney general also repeatedly defended Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, who has vowed to dismantle the agency and threatened to “come after” Trump’s perceived enemies.
Asked if she would ever hire someone with an “enemies list,” what critics have called Patel’s self-described “members of the executive branch deep state,” she highlighted the accomplishments of the man who could run the federal law enforcement agency under her direction.
“I’ll cut to the chase. You’re clearly talking about Kash Patel,” Bondi said. “I don’t believe he has an enemies list. … I know that Kash Patel has had 60 jury trials as a public defender, as a prosecutor, he has great intel experience … I have known Kash and I believe Kash is the right person, in the right time, for this job.”
Pam Bondi had previously claimed there was fraud in the 2020 election but refused to discuss evidence while testifying during her Senate confirmation hearing for Trump’s attorney general (REUTERS)
If she becomes attorney general, “you have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election” and “you have to be able to say that January 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told her.
“You have to be able to say that a nominee for FBI director who says he has an enemies list — and that’s just the beginning of what he has said in terms of politicizing, deeply weaponizing the FBI against political opponents — that he shouldn’t be FBI director,” he said.
“No, I don’t,” Bondi fired back.
“I sit up here and speak the truth. I’m not going to say anything I need to say to get confirmed by this body,” she said. “I will answer the questions to the best of my ability, honestly. … If confirmed, he will follow the law … and I don’t believe he would do anything otherwise.”
Bondi testified that she would commit to the Constitution and the Justice Department’s independence but dodged questions on the legitimacy of his election loss in 2020 (AP)
If confirmed, Bondi could lead a radically reshaped Justice Department built around Trump’s legal team.
Her deputy attorney general managing the agency’s day-to-day operations could be Trump’s criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche. His deputy could be his law partner Emil Bove, and the deputy handling the civil rights division could be Harmeet Dhillon, who led more than a dozen election challenges on behalf of the Trump campaign
D. John Sauer — who argued for Trump’s “immunity” from criminal prosecution — was tapped for U.S. solicitor general.
Will Scharf — who joined the legal team in Trump’s federal election interference case — was named White House staff secretary. Alina Habba, who defended Trump in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case and in his fraud trial, was named counselor to the president.
