Pam Bondi Fires Back Against Dem Senator’s Bullying Routine: ‘I’m Not Here to Do Your Homework’

Another day, another Democratic embarrassment during confirmation hearings.

This time, it was the Senate Judiciary Committee and the nominee was attorney general hopeful Pam Bondi, former attorney general of Florida.

Among those who went viral for poorly considered lines of questioning was Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who wanted to tackle questions about, among other things, the 2020 election, birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment.

Bondi’s response to him was blunt: She wasn’t there to “do your homework.”

The exchange began with the biggest substantive claim against Bondi: that she represented then-President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election, when he sought to challenge the results legally.

When Padilla asked her if she would “retract your previous statements that Trump won Pennsylvania in the 2020 election, yes or no?” Bondi responded by saing that she “traveled to Pennsylvania, and let me tell you about what I saw.” Padilla demanded a yes or no answer.

She refused, at which point Padilla said he was “going to move on because she’s clearly not answering my questions,” but went on to compare her to another Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

“It’s imperative, Ms. Bondi, that you subscribe to facts and evidence and not politically convenient conspiracy theories,” Padilla said.

When he stopped his lecture, he pointed at her, which she took as her cue to give an actual answer to a nuanced question. Nope! He steamrolled her and went into his question about the 14th Amendment.

“You pointed your finger at me and said you were speaking. Let me answer your question. I’m not going to be bullied by you, Sen. Padilla,” she said as he tried to get his question out.

And then, as he continued talking over her: “I guess you didn’t want to hear my answer about Pennsylvania.”

No, of course he didn’t; that’s not how these bloviation-fests work.

Moving along, Padilla then asked her about the 14th amendment and whether it automatically grants someone citizenship if they’re born in the country. He asked what the clause meant.

“Senator, I’m here to answer your questions, I’m not here to do your homework and study for you,”she quipped.

Now the senator doth protest! “You’re the one asking for a confirmation vote, ma’am,” he said, again talking over her.

“Hey, you cut me off — can I please finish?” Bondi responded, adding that the “14th Amendment — we all know — addresses birthright citizenship.”

And then, a final stinger at the end of that line of questioning: “I didn’t take your homework assignment, I’m sorry. I was preparing for today.”

The full exchange:

The Bondi hearings came one day after the Pete Hegseth disaster, in which Democrats flailed and failed to lay a substantive glove on what is arguably Trump’s most controversial pick.

If, after months of posturing and promising, they couldn’t deliver a thing on a man the Democrats painted as a drunkard and creep — quite unfairly and on the basis of little evidence, if one is to judge by his hearing Tuesday — they can’t really hope to change any minds on Pam Bondi, whose ascension seems as guaranteed as tomorrow’s sunrise.

However, it’s worth noting just how weary the whole thing looked. Padilla wasn’t the only Democrat to be embarrassed during the hearing, but he was the most beclowned member of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. And, in a way, he’s emblematic of how this process has already gone awry for a party licking its wounds after losing bigly in November.

This time around, #TheResistance looks infinitely more listless and plodding, as if these pols know they’re riding a wave that has long since crested and is creeping back into the progressive sea.

They may use touchstone phrases from the leftist annus mirabilis of 2020 like “election denier” and “undocumented migrants” — and still believe in what’s behind them — but the delivery lacks conviction and they seem convinced that the whole thing is a lost cause. Which it is, but you’d at least like them to pretend to believe in it.

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