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‘The Only One Who Refused’: President Trump’s AG Pick Rips Democratic Senator During Confirmation Hearing

Pam Bondi has made a name for herself across Florida as that state’s tough attorney general, a position she held for nearly a decade ending in 2019.

She is now President Donald Trump’s pick to become the next Attorney General, appearing before a U.S. Senate panel this week as part of the confirmation process.

As with other Trump nominees, Bondi was peppered with a series of politically charged questions and accusations from Senate Democrats, though she received significant praise from supporters for her poise under fire.

One senator in particular, Democrat Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, received an earful from, as Fox News reported:

“You have an incoming president who said, ‘I have the absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,’ and in fact, President-elect Trump considers the DOJ to be his law firm,” the Hawaii senator said to Bondi on Wednesday. “I ask you this: If President-elect Trump asks, suggests or hints that you as attorney general should investigate one of his perceived political enemies, would you do so?”

“Sen. Hirono, I wish you had met with me. Had you met with me, we could have discussed many things and gotten to –” Bondi began to respond.

Hirono then interrupted by saying, “I am listening to you now, could you please respond to the question?”

“You were the only one who refused to meet with me but what we would have discussed is that it is the job of the attorney general,” Bondie said before being interrupted by Hirono again.

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“I’m very happy to listen to your responses under oath, Miss Bondi,” Hirono said.

“So I think it’s really important to us that the attorney general be independent of the White House, and you have a president-elect who considers the AG’s office his law firm. I would like to know whether if the president suggests, hints, asks, that you, as attorney general, should investigate one of his perceived enemies.”

Bondi responded, “I certainly have not heard the president say that. But what I will tell you is two-thirds of Americans have lost faith in the Department of Justice, and its statements like that, I believe, that make people continue to lose faith.”

Bondi’s effective reaction to Hirono’s line of questioning received significant social media praise:

Hirono has long been described by critics on the right as especially ill-informed, even for a Democrat.

She also has a history of making some inflammatory remarks during confirmation hearings, as the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2018 after Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Wall Street Journal ripped her in an editorial for saying Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school party, had to be believed, saying the presumption of guilt was the new liberal standard for justice.

Pressed on her stance by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, Hirono made the eyebrow-raising remark that she doubted Kavanaugh’s credibility because of his jurisprudence.

“I put his denial in the context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his cases,” she said. “When I say that he is very outcome driven, he has an ideological agenda, very outcome-driven, and I could sit here and talk to you about some of the cases that exemplifies his ability to be fair.”

Hirono hasn’t backed off the remarks in the days since, telling MSNBC that “we are not in a court of law” but rather a “court of credibility,” and dismissing the idea Kavanaugh should have the “presumption of innocence” Tuesday on CNN.

Here’s a longer clip of the exchange between Bondi and Hirono:


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