WaPo should apologize for endorsing Pam Bondi

There were plenty of red flags before she became Trump’s fascist enforcer.

In an editorial in January, the Washington Post gave a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down to each of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. Among those who got an endorsement was Pam Bondi for attorney general:

But in Bondi’s first few months as AG, she has been the fascist enforcer that many of us thought she’d be. She’s working for a would-be dictator – certainly not for the American people or for due process in a democracy.

Bondi defends the shipping of immigrants to a notorious Salvadoran prison without hearings. Even after the Supreme Court ordered the Trump regime to “facilitate” the return of immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly sent to that prison, Bondi was defiant. She lied about the circumstances of the case and declared that as far as the White House was concerned, “he is not coming back to our country.”

Bondi has launched an investigation of former special counsel Jack Smith and others for supposed “weaponization” of the government when, in fact, she’s doing the weaponization. Trump has also ordered Bondi to go after the Democratic Party’s fundraising arm, ActBlue, and two officials from Trump’s first term who ended up opposing him.

Bondi is targeting the news media, too, declaring that the Justice Department will demand journalists’ records in leak investigations, raising the prospect of the government jailing reporters for protecting their sources.

Defending the arrest of a Wisconsin judge for allegedly obstructing immigration agents, Bondi seemed to declare war on the judiciary, saying, “We will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

The Washington Post might now feign surprise at Bondi’s performance as AG, but even before WaPo gave her a thumbs-up, her track record should have disqualified her:

• In 2013, she persuaded Florida Gov. Rick Scott to delay an execution because it conflicted with the date of her campaign fundraiser.

• That same year, a Bondi political action committee accepted an illegal $25,000 donation from a Trump charity, and Bondi decided that Florida wouldn’t join an investigation into scandal-ridden Trump University.

• In 2016, when the crowd at the Republican National Convention chanted “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton, Bondi declared from the stage: “Lock her up – I love that.”

• After Trump lost the 2020 election, Bondi lied, stating "we do have evidence of cheating” in Pennsylvania, and claimed that Trump had won the state. (He lost by 82,000 votes.)

In assessing Trump’s Cabinet picks as “acceptable” or “unacceptable,” WaPo offered this qualifier:

“The president-elect won the election. He deserves deference in building his team, and the Americans who elected him deserve an operational government, absent disqualifying deficiencies in competence, temperament or philosophy.”

So an election denier like Bondi had an acceptable “philosophy,” according to the Post.

WaPo disapproved of only four choices: Hegseth at Defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Health and Human Services, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, and Russell Vought as head of the Office of Management and Budget.

In addition to Bondi, WaPo endorsed Howard Lutnick, who lied last October that Trump wouldn’t hire people tied to the radical Project 2025. Since becoming Commerce secretary, Lutnick has inspired derision by suggesting that no one but “fraudsters” would complain if the government failed to deliver their Social Security checks.

WaPo also had no big problem with Homeland Security pick Kristi Noem, best known for bragging about shooting her dog in the head. Since joining the Cabinet, Noem has been a cosplaying clown, dressing up in bulletproof vests and Border Patrol gear for the benefit of the cameras. She did a photo-op at that Salvadoran prison while wearing a $50,000 Rolex watch, with the miserable inmates serving as her backdrop.

As Trump and his Cabinet drag our country toward dictatorship, the media’s attempts at normalization are increasingly unforgivable. Same for Democrats who gave Trump’s picks the benefit of the doubt.

Marco Rubio’s nomination as Secretary of State was confirmed 99-0, with the votes of every Democrat in the Senate. Since then, Rubio has destroyed U.S. foreign aid programs, assisted in Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine, and promoted the kidnapping of immigrants and their foreign imprisonment without hearings – as well as the proposed shipping of American citizens to foreign prisons.

Bondi’s confirmation got just one Democratic vote – John Fetterman’s. Which means WaPo has more to apologize for than the Democrats, at least in the case of Bondi.

So, Washington Post, how about a public apology and a demand for her resignation? You urged senators to vote for Bondi because “lawyers who have worked for her report that she is serious.” But serious about what? About trashing our judicial system. Clean up your mess, WaPo. Get serious.

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