President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, at a Senate hearing Wednesday refused to say whether President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
During a series of questions from Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on whether Bondi would stand up to Trump if asked to do something illegal, Durbin asked whether she acknowledged that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election
“To my knowledge, Donald Trump has never acknowledged the legal results of the 2020 election," Durbin said. "Are you prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?”
Bondi, in her response, said: “All I can tell you, as a prosecutor, is from my first-hand experience, and I accept the results. I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is president of the United States. But what I can tell you is what I saw first-hand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the campaign.”
“I was an advocate for the campaign, and I was on the ground in Pennsylvania, and I saw many things there. But do I accept the results? Of course, I do. Do I agree with what happened? I saw so much,” Bondi said.
In 2020, Bondi supported Trump's efforts to overturn the election, embracing false claims of voter fraud and asserting that "we won Pennsylvania," a state Trump in fact lost by 80,000 votes.
Durbin responded to Bondi's deflection by saying that he thought his question “deserved a yes or no.”
“I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren’t prepared to answer yes,” Durbin said.
In a follow-up question, Durbin asked Bondi whether she would advise Trump to pardon January 6 rioters convicted of assaulting police officers.
“If asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis,” Bondi said.
Shares