Pam Bondi and the Deterioration of Public Trust
Attorney General Pam Bondi appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Source: Lavocedinewyork.com
On Tuesday, October 7th, Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a fiery testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Spanning over four hours, Bondi fielded questions from Democratic and Republican Senators about the Epstein files, National Guard deployments in American cities, and alleged malfeasance of Trump Administration officials. When she deflected or refused to answer a Republican member’s question, she was only pressed to answer once. However, when she stonewalled a Democratic member’s question, she was almost always pressed to answer by that member. When confronted, Bondi was combative and repeatedly sparred with Committee members about their personal histories and political records instead of directly answering the questions they asked her. Bondi provided no insight into the unprecedented direction of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The hearing only served to further obscure the DOJ’s actions; a person viewing the hearing would only emerge more confused about the highly suspect and increasingly unconstitutional activities going on at the DOJ.
The purpose of the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to the Senate’s official website, is “oversight of key activities of the executive branch.” The Committee’s hearings are supposed to provide the Senate and the American people with information about executive branch activities to ensure legality and transparency. These hearings, broadcasted live, are intended to bolster public trust in the government. But early into the hearing, it became evident that Bondi had not come to increase our trust in the government, but instead came prepared with statements of refusal and retaliatory arguments. She sought to flip the script and make the hearing about anything but the questions lawmakers were asking her about.
The hearing comes at a time when the American people need transparency from agencies like the Department of Justice now more than ever. Last month, President Trump has made demands via the social media platform TruthSocial requesting the DOJ and Bondi to investigate his political enemies, such as former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), and liberal donor George Soros’ foundation. Comey and James have since been indicted. Additionally, Bondi’s DOJ is facing legal battles from the attorney generals of Oregon and Illinois in response to President Trump’s National Guard deployment in the Democratic-controlled cities of Portland, OR and Chicago, IL.
All of these hot-topic issues and more were raised at the hearing to limited amounts of success by Democratic lawmakers. The Democrats seemed intimidated by Bondi, who dealt out rattling one-liners and questioned their own credibility. One such example of this was when she, instead of answering the question posed by Senator Blumenthal (D-CT), responded to him, “I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service,” referencing a 2010 incident when Senator Blumenthal was caught lying about serving in the Vietnam War. These hearings are supposed to shed light on the inner-workings of the executive branch, and instead of providing this information to the Senate Committee, especially when this information was asked by Democrats, Bondi became polemic.
The proceedings highlighted the sheer partisanship of today’s government. When given softball questions by the Republican Committee members, she responded civilly, reading off pre-written notes that touted Trump Administration policy goals. When asked a question by Democratic Committee members, she became condescending, interrupting the members mid-question, yelling at members, and telling them, “your party voted to shut down the federal government,” even when the topic of the government shutdown wasn’t raised in the corresponding question. The hearing was not only unproductive but counterproductive, utterly failing to execute its purpose of providing transparency.
The Bondi hearing exposed the perils of partisanship, which have real consequences when time that could be spent on actionable legislation is wasted on arguing about what constitutes the truth. If officials consistently debate over what constitutes a fact, there is no basis for public trust in the government. Further, her politicization of the DOJ damages the reputation of the civil servants in the DOJ who seek to do good, an easy example of why many are disillusioned with politics. The hearing’s only success was Bondi’s perfect embodiment of the Trump standards of governance: distract, accuse, and lie, and if someone dares to call you out on that lie, call them the liar instead.