Pam Bondi has mastered the art of pretending everything Trump does is OK.

On By Littum

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As measured by the Pete Hegseth standard (“how many pushups can you do” without being alleged to have been beaten at work, or to have committed sexual assaults), Pam Bondi acquitted herself coolly and almost masterfully at her confirmation hearings. But the most important thing about her performance: If a riot happens in a forest and Pam Bondi isn’t there to hear it, did it really happen? This was Bondi’s recurring response to most appalling aspects of her own record and the record of the president who appointed her: She heard no evil and certainly saw nothing. It is therefore jarring Gotchaism to ask her to discuss it.

Did she hear Donald Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state asking him to find more votes? No, she never listened to it. Did she hear Trump’s comments about prosecuting Liz Cheney? She never heard that. Does she know about Trump’s promise to prosecute Jack Smith? She doesn’t. His threat to go after Merrick Garland? No idea. What does she think of Kash Patel’s much-vaunted enemies list? Oh. Did he say it on TV? Patel’s threats to shut down the FBI? She doesn’t know. Pardon for those convicted of the January 6 uprising? She dares not judge a case that may come before her. And did Trump lose the 2020 election? Biden is president. No really, Trump did win the 2020 election? She saw some THING on the ground in Pennsylvania. You have NO idea. What does she know beyond a shadow of a doubt? There was a “peaceful transition” after the 2020 elections.

The thing with this team of Trump 2.0 enthusiasts? Their almost uncanny toolbox of denial techniques – Hegseth’s “anonymous smears” and Bondi’s “wait, Trump said what?” – reveals the game here: Treat everything Donald Trump has said about what he plans to do to the Justice Department, the FBI, the military, and the police as the adorable rantings of someone else’s crazy uncle, and treat everything reported in the press as always a demonstrable lie. Because it was in the press. Senate Democrats, who have done an admirable job of pointing out that Bondi has been an unreconstructed shill for Trump, don’t seem to fully understand that the things they’re asking and the media reports they’re quoting refute it nominated as de facto lies. .

Asked by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about her famous quote about “pursuing the charges”, Bondi was emphatic. Read in its entirety, her quote had to be placed in its true context: “The Department of Justice, the accusers will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” Bondi had explained on Fox News last year. Only the “bad” will be prosecuted, she reassured at her hearing. What is a bad prosecutor? Unclear. We’ll let the crazy uncle decide.

What is striking about this new set of confirmation hearings, and those that will no doubt follow, is that the only determining factor for a 2025 appointment is loyalty to Trump. Not to the GOP. Not for conservative legal values. Not to some carefree theory of separation of powers or to an old-fashioned vision or to the unitary executive power. The unit leader is Trump. To be eligible to serve in Donald Trump’s cabinet, one must have shown allegiance to Donald Trump. Which means that during these hearings one has to talk platitudes about institutions and theories of justice and independence and freedom and justice for all and rape shelters at the border, without ever rejecting a single word uttered by Donald J. Trump, or acknowledging his activities to override the last election, or statements by his loyalists, or statements made by oneself to gain favor. You simultaneously audition for just one person and also say what needs to be said to prove that nothing Donald Trump has ever said or done is real, or true, or prominent. Bondi happens to be great for this. By the end of the afternoon, it appears that Senate Democrats are conceding that justice and freedom and independence are the name of the game. Bondi still believes that Trump won in 2020 and that Biden is the president. It’s scary to witness.