"Not familiar": Pam Bondi claims ignorance of Trump's remarks on January 6 rioters

Pam Bondi dodged questions about some of Trump's most well-known statements

By Russell Payne

Staff Reporter

Published January 15, 2025 1:26PM (EST)

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney General in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney General in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Throughout her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, claimed that she is “not familiar” with some of Trump’s defining political moments.

During a line of questioning from Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Hirono asked Bondi whether she agreed with Trump in his characterization of convicted January 6 rioters as “hostages” and "patriots.”

Bondi responded that she is “not familiar” with that statement. After Hirono said that she had just familiarized Bondi with Trump’s statement, Bondi again insisted that she was not aware of the remarks and had no further comment.

Bondi gave the same response when Hirono asked her whether she agreed with Trump when he said, in December 2023, that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States.

Earlier in the hearing, Bondi likewise said that she had not listened to Trump’s infamous 2020 call with the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump asked to “find” the votes necessary to make him the election winner. Bondi insisted that she couldn’t answer questions about Trump’s demands, and had only ever heard a clip of the call.


MORE FROM Russell Payne