Pam BondiPresident-elect Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department was involved in a heated clash with Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, on Wednesday when California Senator Bondi was questioned about whether she would prosecute Trump's political opponents.
Schiff, a vocal critic of the president-elect, asked Bondi if she would investigate former special counsel Jack Smith as well as former Rep. Liz Cheney.
He said: “I ask you as you sit here today whether you are aware of a factual basis for the investigation into Liz Cheney.”
Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Justice as Attorney General, will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing at the Capitol on January 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
“Senator, no one asked me to investigate Liz Cheney. This is my assumption,” she said.
She then turns the tables on Schiff, pointing out California's crime rate.
“You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California is very high. Your burglaries are 87 percent higher than the national average,” she said. “That's what I want to focus on, Senator.”
Shiv said Bondi's answers indicate that she does not have the independence to say “no” to the president. He then asked her if she would tell Trump that he lost the 2020 election. Bondi accused Schiff of “playing politics” and leaking Rep. Devin Nunes' memo.
“What I can tell you is that I will never do politics, you are trying to get me into trouble“,” she said.
Then the MP. Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, speaks to reporters as he leaves the final meeting of the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on December 19, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Schiff responded, asking her if she would advise against a blanket pardon by President-elect Trump, and suggesting she would not be able to look at every file on day one.
“You will be able to review hundreds of cases on the first day,” Schiff said. “Of course you won’t.”
Bundy was angry about Schiff's comments.
“I will not mislead this body or you. Congress has criticized you, Senator, for comments like these that are extremely reckless,” she said.
Schiff has been criticized in 2023 for promoting allegations that Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia, a vote that made Schiff the third House member to be impeached since the turn of the century.
The incident was one of a number of heated exchanges the former Floridian has had with Democratic lawmakers. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Dr., asked her about weaponizing the Department of Justice.
“Wouldn't it be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with the name and look for a crime?” Whitehouse said during his line of questioning. “It's the prosecutor's job to start with the crime and find a name. Isn't it?”
Bundy replied By highlighting the federal government's investigations into Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Senator, I think that's the whole problem with the weaponization that we've seen over the last four years and what's happening to Donald Trump,” Bondi said.
