Senate Confirms Pam Bondi As Attorney General

In a 54-46 vote late Tuesday evening, the U.S. Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as the next attorney general. The vote was largely along party lines, with every Democratic senator — save for Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) — voting against her. 

With Bondi — who served as Florida’s attorney general and on the legal team for President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign — the Department of Justice will be led by a close ally of the president, with a rich history of election denialism and attacking civil and human rights. During her tumultuous confirmation hearing in January, Bondi repeatedly dodged multiple questions from Democratic senators asking her who won the 2020 election.

“President Biden is the President of the United States, he was duly sworn in,” Bondi said when she was asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il.) if she was “prepared to say under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.” 

“You cannot say who won the 2020 presidential election,” Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono (D) later said to her. “It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact.”

Bondi’s nomination was met with swift opposition from hundreds of civil rights groups, who outlined in a letter to senators her long history of opposition to civil rights and anti-voting activities. “At this critical time for our democracy, Ms. Bondi lacks the independence needed at the DOJ to build trust in the department and to ensure the fair enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws,” the letter, which was spearheaded by the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights (LCHCR), read. “Her record and responses to questions during the hearing underscore that she lacks the commitment to defending the core tenets of our democracy and the civil and human rights of all people.” 

Jan. 30

Hundreds of Civil Rights Groups Oppose Pam Bondi’s Attorney General Nomination

Ahead of the U.S. Senate’s vote to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general, a coalition of more than 300 civil rights groups signed a letter to every senator urging them to vote against her confirmation. 

The letter outlines Bondi’s long record of opposing civil rights, along with her extensive history of anti-voting activities — including her support and efforts to help President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election — as the chief reason why she’s uniquely unqualified to serve as the nation’s top lawyer and lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

“At this critical time for our democracy, Ms. Bondi lacks the independence needed at the DOJ to build trust in the department and to ensure the fair enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws,” the letter, which was spearheaded by the Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights (LCHCR), read. “Her record and responses to questions during the hearing underscore that she lacks the commitment to defending the core tenets of our democracy and the civil and human rights of all people.” 

During Bondi’s confirmation hearing Jan. 15, the former Florida attorney general and longtime Trump lawyer refused to say who won the 2020 election. “President Biden is the President of the United States, he was duly sworn in,” Bondi said when she was asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il.) if she was “prepared to say under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.” 

Bondi played a pivotal role in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. As one of Trump’s main lawyers, she spearheaded efforts in Pennsylvania to get absentee ballots tossed out, claiming that dead people cast nearly a million fraudulent ballots in the Key Stone State. She even went on Fox News to say that Trump’s legal team “have evidence of cheating” and “are not going anywhere until they declare we won Pennsylvania.”

These actions, along with her record opposing LGBTQ, immigration and reproductive rights, disqualify her as attorney general, the letter said. The LCHCR represents more than 240 national organizations that promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States; an additional 90 other various organizations signed on to the letter, including groups like NAACP, Greenpeace and AFL-CIO — the largest federation of unions in the country. 

Jan. 15

Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney General Pick, Refuses to Say Who Won 2020 Election

Throughout Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, one question was asked numerous times by various senators: who won the 2020 election? 

It’s a simple question but one Bondi repeatedly refused to answer. “President Biden is the President of the United States, he was duly sworn in,” Bondi said when she was asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il.) if she was “prepared to say under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.” 

It was the closest Bondi came to answering the question throughout more than two hours of questioning from senators. Shortly after Durbin’s questioning, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono (D) point-blank asked Bondi, “who won the 2020 presidential election?” Bondi replied by simply stating, “Joe Biden is the president.” “You cannot say who won the 2020 presidential election,” Hirono said. “It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact.”

Bondi didn’t answer the question two more times, in lines of questioning from Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Ca.), with Bondi sparring with Schiff by accusing him of trying to get her to “engage… in a gotcha” question. 

Bondi, who previously served as Florida’s attorney general and, at times, an attorney for Trump — including during his 2020 campaign — has a rich history of election denialism. While senators grilled her about other topics — like the potential conflict of interest posed by her lobbying work and if her loyalty to Trump would come in conflict with protecting the rule of law — it was her history of election denialism that hung heaviest throughout the confirmation hearing. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Bondi was one of several Trump lawyers who was spreading voting conspiracy theories and false allegations of election fraud. She was part of the Trump campaign’s legal effort to challenge ballots in Pennsylvania in 2020 and went on to spread false allegations of election cheating in the Keystone State. 

When Schiff asked Bondi if she thought there was “massive fraud affecting the result of the 2020 election, yes or no,” she retorted: “Senator, I’m glad you asked that question… if you’ll let me answer what I saw in Pennsylvania.” 

During Trump’s attempt to overturn the election in November 2020, Bondi went on Fox News and spread disinformation about the ballot counting process. “All the good residents who are all supporting us in Pennsylvania, their votes don’t count by these fake ballots that are coming in late,” she said. “And they are not letting us watch the process.”

Since 2021, Bondi has been chair of the America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) center for litigation and co-chair of its center for law and justice. AFPI — a conservative legal think tank founded in the aftermath of Trump’s first administration — is made up of a handful of prominent Republicans with ties to the president-elect, many of whom were nominated to Trump’s cabinet. As one of AFPI’s leading figures, Bondi has spearheaded the group’s efforts to disenfranchise voters around the country. Under Bondi, AFPI led a multistate legal effort to overturn a pro-voting Biden executive order that expands voting access. AFPI also got involved in several election lawsuits in Arizona, challenging parts of the state’s Elections Procedural Manual.

Though Bondi’s work to disenfranchise voters in the years since the 2020 election is extensive, she still refused to say if Biden’s election victory was legitimate, dancing around the issue as much as she could. Yet when she spoke about the 2024 election, Bondi was clear in her answer: “President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024,” she said.

Learn more about Pam Bondi’s history of election denialism here.