(LifeSiteNews) — President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be America’s top law enforcement official.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,” Trump said on TRUTH Social this week.
Bondi’s selection comes after Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration after it was clear that GOP Senators Mitch McConnell, Lisa Merkowski, and Susan Collins and Senator-elect John Curtis of Utah would not vote to confirm him. His defeat has been deemed a victory over Trump by the establishment wing of the Republican Party.
Like Gaetz, Bondi has been a longtime Trump loyalist. After the disputed 2020 presidential election, Trump dispatched her to challenge the results in court. She also defended him during impeachments hearings that year.
Donald Trump’s Attorney General nominee, Pam Bondi, delivered a bombshell presentation in 2020 exposing the Biden family’s ties to the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
During her revelations on Ukraine corruption, the big three networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—went dark,… pic.twitter.com/AmAKyXt4YC
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) November 22, 2024
Bondi has been a fierce surrogate for the president on immigration and other issues while appearing on cable news in recent years. After the Biden Department of Justice raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence this past May, Bondi appeared on Fox to excoriate the move.
“I’ve been a part of executing multiple search warrants. Nothing about this was standard. It was a siege by land, by sea, by air,” she said.
Bondi, 59, was Florida’s Attorney General from 2011 until 2019, serving under then-Florida Governor Rick Scott, who is now a U.S. senator. In 2014, she took a strong public stance in defense of marriage. She has also targeted child trafficking and was floated as a possible replacement for Jeff Sessions during Trump’s first term.
In 2012, Bondi sued the Obama administration to overturn its mandate that religious employers provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients to their employees as part of their health care plans. She also defended Florida’s pro-life protections.
A guest on MSNBC this week had a melt down after hearing Bondi was nominated, stating that, “we should all fear [her] because she’s competent … she actually knows how to do this job.”
JUST IN: MSNBC guest melts down over Trump picking Pam Bondi as the next Attorney General, says they should “fear” her because she’s competent.
Liberal political scientist Jason Johnson said Bondi is an “effective pick” who is “worse” than Matt Gaetz.
“We should all fear [her]… pic.twitter.com/PUaGWVqEeR
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 21, 2024
Like many Trump cabinet picks, Bondi is a strong supporter of Israel. She said that Israel is “one of our greatest allies in the world, if not the greatest” and called pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses this past summer “ignorant children,” chalking up their concerns to simple “Jew hatred.”
Whether McConnell, Murkowski, Collins, and Curtis have reservations with Bondi or Trump’s other unconventional picks remains to be seen.