Senate confirms Pam Bondi as Attorney General

Partisan lines drawn during Pam Bondi's Attorney General confirmation hearing. Image via AP.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as the new U.S. Attorney General.

Bondi was confirmed in a 54-46 vote, with senators mostly breaking along party lines. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, joined Republicans in voting to confirm Bondi.

Bondi, who previously served two terms as Florida Attorney General, was nominated for the job by President Donald Trump in November. She held statewide office from 2011 to 2019.

Republicans banded together in support of Bondi’s nomination.

“The American people should be able to trust that the Department of Justice is not targeting Americans based on their political opinions or religious beliefs,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota republican. “Pam Bondi has promised to get the department back to its core mission, prosecuting crime and protecting Americans from threats to their safety and their freedoms.”

In particular, Thune praised Bondi’s commitment to fighting the opioid crisis early, at a time when many officials in both parties felt reluctance about challenging the pharmaceutical industry and medical professionals on the matter. Bondi pushed for the closing of pill mills in Florida.

Democrats initially tried to stall a vote on Bondi until Wednesday, and on Monday raised questions about her involvement in the recent dismissal of FBI investigators and Department of Justice prosecutors involved in charges against Jan. 6 rioters. Dismissed career investigators included Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.

“As America faces a heightened threat landscape, these shocking removals and reassignments deprive DOJ and the FBI of experienced, senior leadership and decades of experience fighting violent crime, espionage, and terrorism,” read a letter led by Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats had also previously raised questions about Bondi representing Trump’s presidential campaign in legal challenges to the 2020 election results and her lobbying work for Ballard Partners.

But they also ultimately reached an agreement to vote on Bondi’s confirmation Wednesday, even while voting as a block against her confirmation based on philosophical concerns.

“Someone who still needs to ‘study’ birthright citizenship surely won’t be a champion in defending it,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, on the Senate floor.

Senate Republicans said Democrats were trying to obstruct a qualified nominee. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised Bondi on the floor Monday, and said she deserved bipartisan support, just as President Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland received four years ago.

“If my colleagues won’t cross the aisle for this qualified nominee, they’ll show that they’re intent on opposing President Trump’s picks for purely partisan reasons,” he said. “Ms. Bondi’s ready and able to serve our country, and she’ll work with President Trump to restore faith in the Justice Department.”