Donald Trump removed Pam Bondi as attorney general Thursday, and both sides of the political aisle have since celebrated the news.
“She, from the get-go, royally fouled up the release of the Jeffrey Epstein documents,” Fox Business Network host Dagen McDowell said following the DOJ shake-up. “And it was just such a rolling disaster all year, and was handled so poorly, that that was one of the biggest problems despite her obvious loyalty (to Trump) and her background.”
Fox News correspondent David Spunt had similar thoughts, saying, “We knew that Pam Bondi, the former attorney general, was on thin ice for a long time with this administration, though she has a personal close relationship with President Trump.”
These sentiments were shared over on CNN, where Elie Honig, the network’s senior legal analyst, lambasted Bondi over her tenure in the Justice Department. The remarks on Thursday came just hours later Trump announced Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would replace Bondi, with the now-former AG moving into the private sector.
“Pam Bondi’s legacy as Attorney General will be as an abject failure,” Honig said on CNN News Central. “And I think there’s broad agreement on that. Start with the Epstein Files. Everyone on both sides of the aisle agrees that she badly mishandled the Epstein Files. As Evan and Jeff just noted, she was the one who brought this back to the fore by making these grand promises about disclosing the Epstein files that ultimately she could not fill. When Congress passed a law requiring DOJ to produce the Epstein Files, she completely botched it.”
Bondi’s handling of the Epstein Files became a frequent point of criticism from the left and the right on Thursday. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) went on X to say, “Bondi handled the Epstein Files in a terrible manner and made this situation far worse than it had to be for President Trump.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), meanwhile, said that “Bondi will be remembered for blocking the release of the Epstein files, weaponizing the DOJ to go after Trump’s political opponents and handing out merger approvals as political favors.”
Similar reactions came from the world of Internet personalities and political podcasters. Steven Crowder shared that “it’s a good day for the Trump administration, and it’s a good day for America” in the wake of her removal. Mehdi Hasan invited his followers to “watch shameless sycophant Pam Bondi, who Trump just fired as AG, heap endless and ridiculous praise on Trump. And he still fired her. Amazing. So, so humiliating.”
Even “South Park” got in on the action, sharing a post on X mocking Bondi by depicting her literally brown-nosing Trump — but we’ll let you seek that one out for yourself.
