Pam Bondi is on track for an unexpectedly smooth Senate confirmation as attorney general — a sign of just how much has changed for her since 2020, when she was persona non grata among Democrats for the key role she played in President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election results as his personal lawyer.
Her path to helm the Department of Justice, which runs through two days of confirmation hearings beginning Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, is expected to be uneventful. That’s in large part due to the fact that there are more serious allegations plaguing other nominees, and that the attorney general pick preceding her, former Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, was highly controversial and forced to withdraw.
Bondi has also engaged in a seemingly effective charm offensive with Senate Democrats, some of whom are already looking for common ground on policy areas like overhauling the criminal justice system and antitrust laws.
“I had a good meeting with her,” said Vermont Democrat Sen. Peter Welch, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “She was very direct, very responsive … She’s got a lot of experience.”
Having a Trump loyalist run the Justice Department is among Democrats’ biggest fears, given the incoming president has pledged to pursue retribution against his political adversaries and dumped attorneys general during his first term in office for not ceding to his commands. And Bondi is one such loyalist, having represented Trump during his first impeachment trial and assisted in efforts to reverse President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Pennsylvania.
Yet Democrats have largely decided that Bondi has the baseline credentials to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, who will be responsible for enforcing Trump’s regulatory agenda and defending his executive actions in court. Given Democrats lack the votes in a Republican-controlled Senate to unilaterally derail any Trump nominee, they’re in agreement that Bondi is not worth the collective effort to discredit in a knock-down, drag out fight.
A senior Democratic Senate aide, granted anonymity to share private party strategy, said Democrats on the panel are expected to use their pulpits to largely go after Trump himself as opposed to Bondi’s background, which includes serving as Florida’s attorney general.
“There’s no question she has the relevant experience managing one of our nation’s largest state departments of justice,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware. “She’s been elected twice to be an attorney general. She’s managed a very large statewide Attorney General Office.”
Coons, who said he was open to possibly voting to confirm her, contrasted Bondi’s record with that of someone like Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Defense — a former National Guard officer and television personally who has been dogged by allegations of drunken debauchery and sexual assault.
Bondi served from 2011 to 2019 as the attorney general of Florida, where she fought to maintain the state’s ban on gay marriage and overturn the Affordable Care Act. She then left government to become a corporate lobbyist for the K Street giant Ballard Partners and co-chaired the Center for Law and Justice at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that has been working to develop and socialize policies for a second Trump presidency.
“The obvious concern with Ms. Bondi is, whether she will … oversee an independent Department of Justice that upholds the rule of law,” Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois said during a floor speech Monday.
Democrats said repeatedly they don’t plan to let Bondi off the hook in this regard during the confirmation hearings, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Judiciary Committee, telling reporters he was looking for “an ironclad air-tight commitment to be the people’s lawyer, to put first and foremost the interests of the American people over loyalty or fealty to Donald Trump.”
Blumenthal, however, also said in an earlier statement he appreciated the chance to speak with Bondi privately about how they might work together on things like “protecting kids online and curtailing Big Tech’s power.”
Coons specifically mentioned collaborating on criminal justice policies.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa, reflecting on why Democrats might be more charitable toward Bondi given her support for Trump’s 2020 stolen election claims, said the answer was obvious.
“[Trump’s] overwhelming mandate in the election,” he said in an interview. “People want change, and if they want change, they’re going to want the people the president wants carrying out his program.”