The Senate on Monday teed up a closing vote on Pam Bondi’s nomination to guide the Justice Division.
The chamber voted 52-46 to restrict debate. Absent an settlement with Democrats, that places a closing affirmation vote within the early hours of Wednesday.
Bondi, the previous Florida legal professional common who additionally labored on Trump’s workforce to problem the 2020 election outcomes, has confronted robust questions from Democrats all through the affirmation course of however hasn’t seen any GOP defections.
She superior out of the Judiciary Committee final week on a party-line, 12-10 vote.
Democrats have questioned her skill to train independence from President Trump, hammering her on the problem throughout her affirmation listening to.
“I need to know that you would tell the president no if you’re asked to do something that is wrong, illegal or unconstitutional,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-In poor health.), the highest Democrat on the panel, mentioned in the course of the listening to.
Bondi dismissed the repeated questions as hypotheticals, however Democrats argue that Trump’s latest actions have made them a actuality. They level to him pardoning or commuting the sentences of all 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants and the Justice Division firing attorneys who labored on his prison circumstances.
Bondi in her listening to additionally refused to say that Trump misplaced the election, as an alternative saying President Biden was at the moment president.
Republicans, nevertheless, vehemently defended her.
“On multiple occasions during her hearing, Ms. Bondi stated that President Biden was the president, and that she quote, unquote, accepted the results. As I said during the hearing, questioning the results of an election does not make one an election denier,” Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) mentioned in the course of the assembly to advance her nomination.
“Some of my colleagues also suggest that Miss Bondi’s loyalty to President Trump is somehow disqualifying. It is not persuasive in any way. There’s nothing wrong with President Trump appointing someone who seriously defended him to a high position. Ms. Bondi publicly supported President Trump, just like 77 million Americans who voted him back into office in November. So this too is not a disqualifying attribute.”
