With Matt Gaetz out of the picture, Donald Trump has moved quickly to refill the attorney general job. His choice is Pam Bondi, the telegenic former attorney general of Florida and frequent Fox News guest host.
Bondi is a big time Trump loyalist these days, but it hasn't always been so. Remember when Trump had to give her a $25,000 bribe to avoid being prosecuted for fraud related to Trump University? All perfectly legal, of course. Good times.
My wife actually met Pam Bondi when she was AG of FL. She's is a pretty nice person if you meet her face to face, for whatever that's worth. I mean I doubt she's raped anyone, which is saying a lot for Trump's cabinet. Of course she will do whatever he tells her to and be totally obnoxious about it.
I can't stop laughing at how cheap it was back in the day to buy,
That was before Bidenflation.
😆
KD, MoJo:
The Orlando Sentinel broke the story in June (if not earlier) of 2016.
The N.Y. Times first and last mentions of the story were September of 2016.
If the grandkids ever ask how America turned fascist, don't forget to mention the lazy and complicit press, where charity donations were a scandal and bribery of public officials was no big deal.
The Old Gray Lady actually got in bed with Breitbart in to expose the corruption at the Clinton foundation. Of course the afore said corruption turned out to be about as substantive as Sadam’s weapons of mass destruction she previously warned us about.
Yes. That was a disgrace. Luckily for the Times you don't need a license to practice journalism because the paper would have had theirs suspended.
Oh, I see that happening in Trumps second term. If you don't get one you must submit each story for approval by some future unnamed dept, such as the Dept of Truth in Journalism or other euphemism. Or perhaps the Dept of Journalism Truth, to have the same initials as dear leader.
Trump obviously values blind loyalty about all else. I strongly suspect one of his considerations is the specter of the 25th amendment.
Loyalty among these rogues....you know what that's worth.
These rogues will backstab each other all day, but are too scared to ever cross the big man. This is a common characteristic of authoritarian regimes.
The Nation had a good piece years back about how Bondi essentially did nothing to punish wage theft by businesses during her time as Florida's state attorney general. Wage theft complaints went unenforced, or with paltry awards - while Bondi aggressively lobbied for presumption laws against city-level efforts to improve enforcement.
She'll be a perfect hack for him, which could be good - if he doesn't want her to go after abortion providers, she won't.
Can I be a $25,000 friend? Exactly what would I have to do as that friend?
Make legal problems go away.
I wonder if Trump made his bribe to Bondi by Venmo.
Amount paid: $25,000
What's this for: 😉
IIRC (can't find it right now), back in 2016 Kevin made a set of predictions about what a Trump administration would look like and the main takeaway is that it would just be phenomenally corrupt. Here we are again and sure enough, he's turning the corruption dial up to 11.
We're officially a banana republic.
I remain steadfast in the knowledge that trump will fuck up to the point that Americans will abandon him and MAGA is droves like 2020. That's all I got
My prediction is that buyer's remorse will set in with unprecedented speed. As to whether that will be enough to halt -- or even mitigate -- the damage, I'm much less confident.
"My prediction is that buyer's remorse will set in with unprecedented speed."
I doubt it will be fast.
People that actually pay attention to politics already know that Trump is a POS, so are not going to change their mind just because of more confirmations.
People that don't pay attention to politics will need actual recsssion or large inflation, or some other large event, to change their minds.
I think a recession is likely next year especially with trump's psychotic economic agenda.
They need it to hit them like a hammer to the face. Anything less and they can still convince themselves that things aren't as bad as they are because their guy is in power.
I thought that being a sexual predator (rape, sexual assault, underage partners) was a job requirement to be in the Orange Fuhrer's 2nd Reich? I guess the main requirement is that they are a Trump sycophant and ass kisser, and of course an incompetent, lying, cheating, repugnant scumbag.
I suppose it would have been entertaining watching Gaetz resign from Congress, then have the Orange Fuhrer drop kick him out of his AG job within a year. Of course I don't watch the news anymore or look at any news website, since the site of that Orange motherfucker's face is simply too nauseating to see.
I hope the people who voted for him, or any MAGA GOP candidate, gets fucked the most in the next 4 years.
"I thought that being a sexual predator (rape, sexual assault, underage partners) was a job requirement to be in the Orange Fuhrer's 2nd Reich?"
Bondi is a proper elections denialist, which is also an essential qualification.
"I thought that being a sexual predator (rape, sexual assault, underage partners) was a job requirement to be in the Orange Fuhrer's 2nd Reich?" Maybe not a requirement but more that it isn't a disqualification. Loyalty to Trump is the most important. I think his new pick is even more loyal than Gaetz.
So many leopards, so many faces. I'm already beginning to lose count.
I’m still digesting the Gaetz situation but, for the moment, it’s incomprehensible to me. I saw a clear logic in nominating and fighting hard to push him through the senate. The benefits for Trump would be immeasurable. Politically, he will never be stronger and the senators more inclined to submit. And then, they would be utterly supine forever.
This has the hallmarks of Trump’s failed autoglope. A fundamentally flawed but workable plan that was untracked by Trump’s incompetence and personal cowardice. I would be willing to bet that there’s nothing about Gatez’s sexual assaults, drug use, etc that has come to light since his nomination was announced which means that Trump lost his nerve again.
Shouldn't that be "auto-golpe"?
In Magarian, "glope" is both a coup and what you do when drinking a Diet Coke. And one can, of course, glope a Diet Coke during a glope, as "the Boss" demonstrated on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.
Yes, it should. Spelling is not my strong suit.
I actually see it differently.
As I wrote before, I don't believe Trump wanted Gaetz in GA, because Gaetz is too dangerous for him. Yes, he grovels, but it will not stop him for sticking a knife in Trump's (or anybody else) back in the first oportunity.
Bondi unlikely to do that.
But then what was the point in nominating Gaetz in the first place? Everything bad that could be known about him was basically already in the public domain. Clearly, his appointment would be opposed by non-MAGA Republicans and Democrats and the administration must have known that it couldn't afford even a single defector. And Trump invested himself in the process, too.
Since Trump and Co. must have known what the reaction would be, it's only reasonable to assume that they would've prepared for it. And that the plan was always to force Republican senators to prostrate and humiliate themselves by supporting such an obviously unqualified and unfit nominee. So, why just quit now?
"But then what was the point in nominating Gaetz in the first place?"
"Softening the target". So now Republicans can say "well, she is not as bad as Gaetz."
As I wrote before, I think it is the same aboud Gabbard in DNI.
Yes yes. If we define what happened as what Trump wanted to happen, then the only conclusion is that Trump must be a doubleplus-secret genius!
Being humiliated by having his AG pick rejected is just all part of the plan. Everything is part of the plan!
As I wrote above, I already said that he doesn't really wants Gaetz several days before Gaetz gone. This was a correct prediction.
Trump obviously wants to "soften" the senate. That is an obvious fact that partly explains his actions. It is pretty infantile to ignore it.
Why would Trump want to soften up the senate by handing his opponents a victory? I continue to believe that the original plan was to humiliate Republican senators by forcing them to submit to voting to confirm possibly the worst cabinet nominee in history. In context, that’s what would’ve made a lot of sense and that what Trump and his stooges were laying the groundwork for accomplishing.
I think that someone (probably Trump) lost his nerve and folded like a cheap suit.
"Why would Trump want to soften up the senate by handing his opponents a victory? "
In the last 8 years Trump succeeded to push the Republicans by putting pressure of them, independently of various cases where he failed to make them do what he wanted. So he just continues to do what worked for him until now.
"Since Trump and Co. must have known what the reaction would be, it's only reasonable to assume that they would've prepared for it."
Why is that reasonable? Trump is an erratic idiot, always has been. Why would he suddenly be a crafty planner now, when his default (erratic idiocy) was just rewarded by getting elected? Simplest explanation is that Trump likes Gaetz because Florida and because Gaetz is a bombthrower and mostly because Gaetz is a Trump lickspittle. So Trump appoints him as AG.
And that fails. So Trump appoints some other lickspittle. Why should he care about the fallout? Even his opponents (just look at this thread) start falling all over themselves to explain how this is all some sort of deep strategy by the Mighty Genius Trump.
"... start falling all over themselves to explain how this is all some sort of deep strategy by the Mighty Genius Trump."
Infantile again.
What we attribute to him are manuevers that schoolchildren often do (and some before school), not "deep strategy".
"The benefits for Trump would be immeasurable. Politically, he will never be stronger and the senators more inclined to submit." He won't have to bother with primary challenges against senators who refuse to kiss the ring, he would use his A.G. Matt Gaetz to open bogus investigations on them. Which he would be all to happy to oblige. I think his new pick would do the same, but she comes with far less baggage than Gaetz.
Yes, but if the point of the exercise was to force Republican senators to prostrate and humiliate themselves, then why nominate Gatez in the first place? Bondi has less baggage but she'll also be weaker because now Trump's weaker.
My first thought was this is some sort of bait and switch. Nominate the absolute worst candidate possible first so the next one would be more acceptable in comparison. She'll be no better than Gaetz, but she comes with far less baggage.
I'm not sure that this will make him appear weak to his supporters. It might even get him more sympathy from them. To them he can do no wrong.
I'm not sure if the goal was to humiliate Republican senators more than it just being a happy coincidence. Figuring out what motivates a narcasist like Trump is not easy and will probably drive one nuts in the process.
This. Judge him by his actions. He's erratic and incompetent.
+1. Yup. Anything else is over thinking the situation. The one thing that Trump has proven is that he rarely puts that much thought into anything. Neither should anyone else when trying to explain his actions. Even my bait and switch argument is giving him too much credit. "He's erratic and incompetent." This explains his actions and choices the best.
Well, Congressman Gaetz will be back, won't he? He "resigned" from the current Congress, but had already been re-elected to the next, 2025-2027, right? And the Ethics Committee has dismissed the complaint against him because he had "resigned", right? So that's done. And their report has been killed by order of Once and Future Speaker, Little Mike Johnson. It's dead.
We can further count on AG Bondi (or Judge Judy, or Hulk Hogan or whoever the next AG will be) to drop all federal prosecutions. At worst, there's the unlimited, unaccountable pardon power of the king ... er, president.
So we can look forward to brand new, squeaky clean Congressman Gaetz in 2025. Huzzah.
Maybe, maybe not. He's widely hated on both sides of the aisle in Washington and that report WILL find its way to light, if Kevin McCarthy himself has to walk it down to the Washington Post.
What's the matter with Judge Judy?
Age 82 and never managed anything larger than her docket or production crew. Bondi is half her age and looks more like "central casting." The Convicted Felon is casting his version of The West Wing, he's not staffing his Executive Branch.
She's conservative but not exactly a Trump supporter. She endorsed Niki Haley. She did think the hush money case was a waste of tax payer money. She also said this, “I think he was a good businessman..." I guess her definition of what constitutes a good businessman is different than mine. I think she bought into the myth. I don't think she would be the rubber stamp Trump wants for A.G. though. She's no sychophant.
Like a herpes flare up, he might come back. It all depends on whether or not the GOP allow him to. Which isn't a sure thing. I'm sure Johnson is no fan of Gaetz and would probably prefer anyone else in his seat. Unfortunately I don't think we've seen the last of this particular degenerate. See above herpes reference.
I wonder how much it cost him this time. Maybe promises to "investigate" certain people, media organizations and maybe some politicians?
Look at her post-2019 resume. She's been a lobbyist for corporate clients since her time and has no significant experience as an attorney before becoming Florida AG. She was a prosecutor briefly in Hillsborough County (Tampa Bay area) but won the primary by being a media presence (and a Sarah Palin endorsement).
She's being rewarded for her devotion to Trump. That's the only qualification required in any of his nominations. He'll say jump and she would be on her way down before he finished asking.
It was not perfectly legal, Trump paid a $2,500 fine for the violation.
So ten percent. It's equivalent to a tip. Not even a generous one. This is why white collar crime pays.