Confirmation hearings are off to an exciting start…
On Wednesday Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general, engaged in a tense exchange with Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono during her confirmation hearing that triggered praise from conservatives on social media.
“You have an incoming president who said, ‘I have the absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,’ and in fact, President-elect Trump considers the DOJ to be his law firm,” the Hawaii senator said to Bondi on Wednesday. “I ask you this: If President-elect Trump asks, suggests or hints that you as attorney general should investigate one of his perceived political enemies, would you do so?”
“Sen. Hirono, I wish you had met with me. Had you met with me, we could have discussed many things and gotten to –” Bondi began to respond.
Hirono then interrupted by saying, “I am listening to you now, could you please respond to the question?”
“You were the only one who refused to meet with me but what we would have discussed is that it is the job of the attorney general,” Bondi said before being interrupted by Hirono again.
“I’m very happy to listen to your responses under oath, Miss Bondi,” Hirono said.
“So I think it’s really important to us that the attorney general be independent of the White House, and you have a president-elect who considers the AG’s office his law firm. I would like to know whether if the president suggests, hints, asks, that you, as attorney general, should investigate one of his perceived enemies.”
Bondi responded, “I certainly have not heard the president say that. But what I will tell you is two-thirds of Americans have lost faith in the Department of Justice, and its statements like that, I believe, that make people continue to lose faith.”
Justice Gorsuch clearly addresses this issue in his book “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.” The AG is part of the Ececutive Branch. If it is independent of the WH, it effectively becomes a 4th branch of govrrnment, dancing to its own tune.