Will Pam Bondi, Attorney General’s pick, retract claims of ‘stolen’ election? | News about the 2024 US election
In sometimes fiery exchanges, the former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi fielded questions during her Senate confirmation hearing for attorney general about whether she would prosecute declared political enemies of President-elect Donald Trump.
Bondi also refused to deny falsehoods that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen”. At a Jan. 15 hearing, Sen. Alex Padilla of California asked Bondi if she would retract her previous statements that Trump had won Pennsylvania in 2020. The two spoke over each other as Padilla asked for a “yes or no” answer and Bondi tried to answer otherwise. In the end, Bondi told the senator that she “will not be bullied.”
The Bondi hearing it came on the second day of high-profile confirmation hearings for Trump’s second-term nominees.
Senator Marco Rubiofor Florida, also had a separate hearing on the same day. Rubio urged the United States not to rely on China for supply chains, in line with Trump’s campaign promises to be tougher on China. Rubio also said he disagreed with President Joe Biden’s Jan. 14 announcement that Cuba would be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Here’s a check on Bondi’s statements.
Bondi echoes Trump’s line that Biden’s Justice Department is targeting political opponents
As Bondi answered questions about whether she would prosecute Trump’s political opponents — which he promised to do during the 2024 campaign — she argued that Biden’s Justice Department had done the same.
“No one will be prosecuted, investigated for being a political opponent,” Bondi said. “That’s what we’ve seen over the last four years in this administration.”
We rated similar claims by Trump as false.
Trump has been indicted twice in federal court and separately in Manhattan and Fulton County, Georgia. In the Manhattan case, a unanimous jury found Trump guilty in May 2024 of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to conceal the payment of secret money to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The other three cases were subsequently dismissed or put on hold Trump won the 2024 election.
Legal experts told us there is no sign that Trump was denied due process or that Biden ordered the prosecution.
Bondi said she “disregarded” Trump’s call for Georgia officials to “find” him votes in the 2020 election.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois questioned Bondi about Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021. Durbin asked if Bondi was concerned that Trump called an election official and asked him to find enough votes for change election results.
Bondi replied that she “didn’t listen to the hour-long conversation, but I understand that’s not what he was asking him to do.”
Except Trump asked Raffensperger, a Republican, to do so, according to a transcript and recording of the call.
In the call, Trump asked Georgia officials to investigate his baseless accusations about Election fraud 2020. Many of his instructions involved a quest to “find” enough ballots to put him in the winning column. (President Joe Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes.) Trump framed his demands on government officials as a mission to uncover criminal wrongdoing.
“You can’t let that happen and you’re letting it happen,” Trump said. “You know, I mean, I’m letting you know that you’re letting this happen. So, take a look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”
Bondi wrongly claims peaceful transfer of power in 2021
Durbin asked Bondi, who has repeatedly supported Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, if she was ready to say Trump lost. Bondi first dodged the question, then insisted there was a peaceful transfer of power in 2021.
“(Biden) was duly sworn in and he is the president of the United States,” she said. “There was a peaceful transition of power.”
Her statement ignores the bullies January 6, 2021the attack on the US Capitol that disrupted the certification of elections.
More than 1,500 people have been indicted in federal court in connection with the riots, with charges including obstructing law enforcement; violence with a deadly weapon; attack; disorderly conduct; and illegal possession of firearms.
Rioters stormed and vandalized the Capitol, attacked police officers and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” Trump has promised to pardon the defendants, but it is not clear how many.
Bondi quizzed Schiff on California robbery statistics
When Sen. Adam Schiff of California asked Bondi if she would investigate Trump’s political enemies, Bondi shot back, saying, “You know what we should be worried about? California’s crime rate is skyrocketing right now. Your robberies are 87 percent higher than the national average, that’s what I want to focus on, Senator.”
Bondi is close to his estimate. For 12 months in 2023, FBI data shows that the average rate of robberies per 100,000 people was about 89 percent higher in California than nationwide.
However, California had rates lower than the national average for murder and rape. The state was above the national average for aggravated assault, the fourth type of crime the FBI categorizes as violent.
PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.
