AG nominee Pam Bondi under fire from Padilla, Schiff over Trump pardons, immigration
Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff engaged in fierce verbal combat Wednesday with Attorney General-designate Pam Bondi, as they fought over her views on the 2020 elections, immigration and presidential pardons.
At one point, a frustrated Bondi told Schiff “You were censured by Congress for comments just like this that are so reckless.”
The California Democrat had expressed doubts Bondi would review the files of those convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Though Bondi said she would do just that. Donald Trump has suggested he could pardon many who were convicted.
Schiff was censured by the House in 2023 in a partisan vote that got no Democratic support.
Then a House member, he was the lead manager in Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial, and Republicans maintained Schiff abused his position “by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.” Democrats protested that the allegation against Schiff was unfounded.
The exchange with Bondi was just one of many between the former Florida attorney general and the two California Senate Democrats. Both Schiff and Padilla are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which began two days of hearings on Bondi’s confirmation Wednesday.
Republicans were pleased with her, and she’s expected to have little trouble being confirmed. Republicans have 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats.
Yes or no, Padilla asks
Both California senators were frustrated by Bondi’s answers.
Padilla several times asked Bondi for a yes or no answer as to whether she had evidence that President Joe Biden did not win Pennsylvania in that election. A flustered Bondi accused Padilla of trying to bully her.
Padilla and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Wednesday began two days of hearings on her confirmation.
Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, had traveled to the state after the 2000 election to appear with Rudy Guiliani, then representing Donald Trump. Bondi at the time charged there had been evidence of cheating in the vote-counting.
Biden wound up winning Pennsylvania with slightly more than 50% of the vote, and no evidence of fraud was found.
“Even after the results were clear, you continued to double down on the big lie promoting falsehoods about election fraud and cheating without offering any actual evidence,” Padilla told Bondi. Four years later, he said, he’s still seen no evidence.
So he asked if she has seen any evidence of election fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election, a yes or no question.
Bondi expressed her regret about the suffering Southern California residents are enduring because of the wildfires and told Padilla she was glad he asked about Pennsylvania.
Padilla kept pressing—yes or no on on the 2020 election?
Bondi would not give a yes or no answer. Padilla grew flustered and asked over and over, yes or no.
“If you have no evidence to offer let me ask you this, will you retract your previous statements…yes or no?”
Still, Bondi would not say. As Padilla kept pressing her, the two began talking at the same time.
“May I speak? You pointed your finger at me and said you were speaking….i’m not gonna be bullied by you, Senator Padilla,” Bondi said. “I guess you don’t want to hear my answer.”
Birthright citizenship
Padilla tried to move on, asking about Bondi’s view on birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed by the 14th amendment, though in his first term, Trump threatened to end the right of citizenship for children born to foreign nationals.
“Senator, I will study birthright citizenship,” Bondi said, adding that she would be happy to meet with him.
“You want to be attorney general of the United States and you still want to study the 14th amendment to the Constitution? That is not helping me have more confidence in your ability to do this job,” Padilla noted
He then asked whether Bondi agreed with Trump’s statement in 2023 that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our nation.”
Noting that her great-grandparents emigrated from Sicily, Bondi said she did not.
Schiff and pardons
Schiff, who became a senator in December, was a member of the House committee that investigated the January 6 riot. Trump has suggested its members be prosecuted.
Schiff asked Bondi if she was “aware of any factual basis to investigate Liz Cheney,” a Republican and outspoken Trump critic, who was the panel’s vice chair.
“Senator, that’s a hypothetical and I’m not going to answer that,” Bondi said. When Schiff pressed her, Bondi responded, “Senator, no one has asked me to investigate Liz Cheney.”
Schiff kept asking, and Bondi replied: “You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California is through the roof.”
To Schiff, such answers suggested that Bondi doesn’t “have the independence to say no to the president.”
Can you tell him he lost the 2020 election.
“Senator what I can tell you is I will never play politics. You’re trying to engage me in a gotcha,” Bondi said.
“Can you tell us was there massive fraud affecting the result of the 2020 election, yes or no?” Schiff asked.
Bondi would not give a yes or no answer.
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 12:03 PM.
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