Lawyer common nominee Pam Bondi dodged a query from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Unwell.) on Wednesday about whether or not President-elect Trump misplaced the 2020 election.
Bondi echoed different Republicans in stating President Biden is now the president, however she wouldn’t say Trump misplaced, and she or he described the post-2020 transition as peaceable regardless of the occasions of Jan. 6, 2021.
“President Biden is the president of the United States. 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,” Bondi mentioned.
She went on to drift doable fraud in Pennsylvania, the place she aided the Trump marketing campaign in difficult the election.
“What I can tell you is what I saw firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the campaign. … I saw many things there. But do I accept the results? Of course, I do.”
That response was unsatisfactory to Durbin.
“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 responded.
Bondi additionally fielded questions on Trump’s plans to pardon these convicted for the Jan. 6 riot, saying she must consider pardons on a case-by-case foundation.
“The pardons, of course, fall under the president, but if asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis, just as I did my entire career as a prosecutor,” she mentioned.
“Let me be very clear in speaking to you: I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country.”
Bondi went on to defend Trump’s controversial decide to guide the FBI, Kash Patel, however mentioned she wouldn’t have an “enemies list” on the DOJ.
Nevertheless, she nonetheless pointed to the prosecutions of Trump as weaponization of the Justice Division.
Bondi denied that Patel has an enemies checklist. However Trump’s FBI decide wrote a ebook known as “Government Gangsters” through which he included an inventory of these he known as gangsters. He later mentioned they should be held accountable.
“There will never be an enemy’s list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi mentioned, including later she wouldn’t goal anybody particularly.
“It would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime.”
She was additionally requested about her personal calls to “investigate the investigators” telling Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that her quote solely referred to addressing “bad” prosecutors.
She then attacked the circumstances in opposition to Trump.
“I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump. They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him actually, starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him,” she mentioned.
“That will not be the case if I am attorney general. I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered even handedly.”
Up to date at 11:02 a.m.
