Like Trump, Pam Bondi is pro-gun control and anti-Second Amendment
If you thought his nomination of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General was bad, Trump’s runner-up nominee could be even worse, because not only is Pam Bondi a dyed-in-the-wool Trump loyalist, but she’s also pro-gun control and anti-Second Amendment.
Bondi’s Trump loyalist bone fides are clear and obvious (via AlterNet.org):
[The] former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi … served on his defense team during his first impeachment trial and now works at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
Bondi previously dropped a probe into Trump University in 2013 after Trump’s family foundation donated $25,000 to her campaign.
“In Pam Bondi, Donald Trump has just the person he really wants: someone who will be a lapdog when it comes to wrongdoing by those people he likes and wants to insulate and protect, and a vicious attack dog for anybody Donald Trump wants to seek revenge against,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump for decades. (Emphasis mine)
Pam Bondi is a perfect fit for Donald Trump’s plan to turn the Department of Justice into his personal attack dog to go after his political enemies as she is the fourth ex-Trump defense attorney to be appointed to the DOJ. And while these facts should be enough on their own to disqualify her for the attorney general’s job, Bondi’s track record as Florida’s AG in the areas of gun control and the Second Amendment provide more reasons for her not to be confirmed.
In an appearance on FOX Business with Stuart Varney following the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Bondi had this to say about the bucket list of anti-Second Amendment legislation passed by the Florida legislature that included raising the age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 and establishing a “red flag” law:
“In a time of crisis, it’s about finding common ground, and that’s what Gov. Scott has done.
“Hopefully Congress will follow Florida’s lead and what Gov. Scott has been doing here in Florida and all of us working so well together.”
Of course, “common ground” is Orwellian politispeak for “let’s agree on how we will begin dismantling the Constitution.” Pam Bondi also praised Trump’s response to the Parkland shootings during the interview and she expressed her hope that he would serve as a “mediator” with federal lawmakers to get gun control legislation passed.
For members of the Trump Cult ready to give Bondi the benefit of the doubt, let me remind you that Trump was talking the same way that she was in 2018 following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy. In other words, he agrees with her because he’s always been pro-gun control and anti-Second Amendment.
In fact, many of Bondi’s gun control ideas following the mass shooting likely came from Trump himself.
In the aftermath of the shooting at the Florida High School, Trump joined with Democrats in Congress to push a bucket list of Democrat-friendly anti-gun measures also embraced by Bondi, including: raising the age to 21 to buy a rifle, expanding background checks, and banning bump stocks “with or without” Congress (ala Barack Obama’ pen and phone).
Another one of Trump’s nominees possessing the same pro-gun control mindset as Pam Bondi also comes from Florida: Secretary of State nominee, Marco Rubio. In a CNN interview following the Florida High School shooting, the man Trump once referred to as “Little Marco” pushed the Florida gun control agenda on the national level. Rubio had already established himself as an anti-Second Amendment “conservative” a few years prior to the Florida tragedy when he introduced the TAPS Act — a bill I referred to at the time as red flag laws on steroids.
Rubio’s TAPS Act would have required law enforcement to give EVERYONE a personal threat assessment (adults and children), single out those they deemed to be future threats, and then use that information to “stop dangerous individuals before they can commit an act of violence.”
And here’s something to wrap your mind around: Bondi’s embrace of radical pro-gun control and anti-Second Amendment legislation following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting provided Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the perfect environment for launching the opening of the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, a national office created for the express purpose of abusing the power of the federal government to force states into implementing and enforcing red flag laws. In fact, Harris used Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida as a backdrop when she made the announcement.
During his presidency, Donald Trump openly embraced Nancy Pelosi’s gun-control agenda, banned bump stocks by executive order, pushed for enhanced background checks, and called for the expansion of red flag laws on a national level.
Trump is such a threat to the Constitution that he’s gone after other parts of the Bill of Rights — such as the right to privacy and the right to due process — to advance his pro-gun control, anti-Second Amendment agenda:
- He suggested that law enforcement ignore due process rights to make it easier for the government to seize guns
- He proposed forcing social media companies to develop tracking tools to “detect mass shooters before they strike”
- He threatened to have his DOJ take Google and Apple to court to force them to turn over personal information on users of a phone app that calibrates rifle scopes
- He called for the creation of a phone app capable of conducting remote background checks via the NICS system, giving government real-time access to personal information without due process and create a national gun registry
Despite these facts, Donald Trump appeared at the 2023 National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, and declared to those in attendance that he was the “most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president” in history, and he made a vow to fight against gun control “forever.” Of course, that was a lie then and remains a lie now.
As Donald Trump continues to nominate people to serve in his administration based on their loyalty to his narcissistic needs instead of their qualifications, remember this: people like Pam Bondi are the rule, not the exception. And that means Trump’s threat to the Constitution and liberty is going to be much worse this second time around.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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