Election denier Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice, refused multiple times at her Wednesday confirmation hearing to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii separately asked the former Florida attorney general if she believed Biden won the election—and Bondi refused to answer both times.
When Durbin asked, Bondi dodged.
“President Biden is the president of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power,” Bondi said.
Of course, the transition of power was anything but “peaceful,” as Trump incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to block certification of Biden’s win.
When Hirono asked Bondi, “Who won the 2020 presidential election?” Bondi gave the same canned answer.
“Joe Biden is the president of the United States,” Bondi said robotically.
The Hawaii lawmaker was unimpressed by that response.
“You cannot say who won the 2020 election,” Hirono said. “It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact.”
Sen. Alex Padilla of California asked Bondi for evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election, which she has continued to lie about for years following Trump’s loss to Biden. But Bondi refused to give any concrete evidence.
“Do you have any evidence of election fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election, yes or no? It’s a yes or no question,” Padilla said.
In response, Bondi gave condolences to Padilla for the fires in California and refused to give a yes or no response about whether she had evidence of fraud.
Bondi was among the dozens of Trump campaign officials and surrogates who lied about voter fraud in the 2020 election in a failed quest to help Trump remain in power.
She specifically focused on Pennsylvania, which Bondi falsely claimed Trump won.
“We are not going anywhere until they declare that we won Pennsylvania,” Bondi said during a Fox News appearance in 2020.
In fact, Bondi helped organize the infamous news conference in Philadelphia that was supposed to take place at the Four Seasons Hotel but instead was mistakenly held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping after the inept campaign booked the wrong venue.
Bondi didn’t speak that day, but was seen “helping other staff to rearrange the company’s landscaping equipment to make way for a podium” before the event began, according to The Washington Post.
It’s no surprise that Bondi refused to say Biden won. Trump demands total loyalty from his Cabinet picks, and admitting that Biden was the victor goes against Trump’s narcissistic delusion that he didn’t lose in 2020.
But it’s terrifying that Republican senators are set to confirm an attorney general who not only can’t admit basic reality, but will readily lie to stroke Trump’s fragile ego.
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