AG nominee Pam Bondi won't say Trump lost 2020 election

Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi dodged a question from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Wednesday about whether President-elect Trump lost the 2020 election.

Bondi echoed other Republicans in stating President Biden is now the president, but she would not say Trump lost, and she described the post-2020 transition as peaceful despite the events 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 said.

She went on to float possible fraud in Pennsylvania, where she aided the Trump campaign in challenging 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 also fielded questions about Trump’s plans to pardon those convicted for the Jan. 6 riot, saying she would have to evaluate pardons on a case-by-case basis.

“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 said.

“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 pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, but said she would not have an “enemies list” at the DOJ.

However, she still pointed to the prosecutions of Trump as weaponization of the Justice Department.

Bondi denied that Patel has an enemies list. But Trump’s FBI pick wrote a book called “Government Gangsters” in which he included a list of those he called gangsters. He later said they must be held accountable.

“There will never be an enemy’s list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi said, adding later she would not target anyone specifically.

“It would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime.”

She was also asked about her own calls to “investigate the investigators” telling Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that her quote only referred to addressing “bad” prosecutors.

She then attacked the cases against 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 said.

“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.”

Updated at 11:02 a.m.

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