In a healthy political environment, Pam Bondi's election-denying record, coupled with her ongoing refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 results, would obviously be disqualifying and career-ending.

With this in mind, Bondi must’ve known she’d face a barrage of questions about the 2020 race, and she’s had nearly eight full weeks to prepare a compelling answer for her Senate confirmation hearing. And yet, when Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois broached the subject, Bondi struggled with the obvious line of inquiry. NBC News noted:

Durbin’s first question focused Bondi’s previous efforts to help Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election. ‘President Biden is the president of the United States. He was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024,’ Bondi said.[/blockquote]

Soon after, during the same hearing, Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii also asked the prospective nominee who won the 2020 election. Instead of answering directly, Bondi replied, “Joe Biden is the president of the United States.”

The senator was not pleased. “Ms. Bondi, you know that there is a difference between acknowledging it and — you know, I can say that Donald Trump won the 2024 election. I may not like it, but I can say it. You cannot say who won the 2020 presidential election,” Hirono said, adding, “It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact.”.....

But even if those other concerns didn’t exist, in a sensible political environment, Bondi would have disqualified herself in the aftermath of the 2020 election when she championed baseless conspiracy theories, fired some of the first shots in the political war to overturn Trump’s defeat, lied to the public about having uncovered “evidence of cheating” and “fake ballots” and participated in the infamous Four Seasons Total Landscaping fiasco.

In theory, these undemocratic efforts should’ve been career-ending for Bondi. In practice, Trump wants her to be the attorney general despite — or perhaps because of — this record.

What’s more, instead of expressing some degree of contrition for her anti-election antics, the Republican lawyer still won’t acknowledge, even now, the legitimacy of the 2020 results.