Pam Bondi As AG Is ‘Better’ or ‘Worse’ Than Gaetz, Depending on Your Perspective
New Trump pick often damned with faint praise
Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi is either a much better — or worse — choice to lead Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
It’s just all a matter of perspective.
Trump named Bondi as his pick to be the next federal attorney general Thursday, after his first choice — former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz — withdrew from consideration due to credible suspicions that he sex trafficked and underage girl.
Bondi is a longtime Trump ally, who helped defend him during his first impeachment in late 2019.
“I think it was a good move to get Gaetz out of the nomination, because he clearly was going to crash and burn, and he shouldn‘t have been there in the first place. It was a horrific choice,” said David Axelrod, a one-time top advisor to President Barack Obama. “Look, I think that, you know, my recollections of Pam Bondi were of leading the ‘Lock her up!’ chants at the 2016 Republican convention and of being in every way a political actor on behalf of Donald Trump, both as attorney general and outside the office of attorney general. And then after she left the office of attorney general.
“So he gets in her what he wants, which is he wants someone who will be responsive to him first, not the duties of the Constitution. He wants to have political control over the Justice Department,” he added.
But whether Bondi is better than Gaetz is a matter for interpretation.
“I mean, you know, a bag filled with peanut butter would be better than Gaetz so, you know, that’s a low bar but let‘s keep in mind an interesting thing,” said Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman and persistent Trump critic. “So in 2013, I think it was Pam Bondi was considering joining a lawsuit against Trump university. And then Donald Trump gave her $25,000 as a campaign donation and she backed out of that lawsuit so that‘s an interesting thing.
“But look, she’ll probably be approved by the Senate and go on to be attorney general,” he added. “Trump has a right to pick who he wants generally, unless it’s Matt Gaetz and I think she probably fits into that category.”
Historian and author Kevin M Kruse damned the choice of Bondi with faint praise.
“More likely than Gaetz to be confirmed, less likely than Paxton or Davis to weaponize DOJ effectively,” he posted to social media, referring to heavily MAGA Texas state attorney general Ken Paxton — known for severe crackdowns on abortion rights and rights of transgender Americans — and Mike Davis, a right-wing activist who threatened to legally “drag their dead political bodies through the streets” and burn them, referring to enemies of Trump and the political right.
Jason Johnson, an author, university professor and political commentator, however said Bondi will be unequivocally worse than Gaetz “because she’s competent.”
“We may not agree with her ideologically, but she actually knows how to do this job,” Johnson said. “So if anyone on the Democratic side or anyone who cared about liberty or justice was thinking, ‘Well, maybe Matt Gaetz will screw this up and that will give us some time,’ no. Pam Bondi knows what she’s doing.
“She knows what she’s doing about immigration. Remember, Florida is one of those states that’s been very aggressive about migrants and deportation and moving people to different states and everything else like that,” he added. “Florida has enacted all sorts of rules and laws to curtail students and what they can do on campuses and finding legal justifications for manipulating education money.
“She is a dangerous and effective pick, and that’s, frankly, worse than what we would have got with Matt Gaetz, even with the deplorable moral background that he has.”
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…