The art of dodging questions | Richard Hétu’s blog

Pam Bondi never directly answered the question of whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, nor did she want to admit that Joe Biden’s victory was legitimate. “President Biden is the president of the United States. He was duly sworn in and he is the President of the United States,” declared the President’s nominee for Attorney General of the United States during his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

The former Florida attorney general never directly responded to a senator’s question about her reaction to hearing the recording of the Jan. 3, 2021, phone call in which Trump asked the secretary of Georgia to “find 11,780 votes” for him.

“I should listen to the recording,” he replied, before suggesting that the words cited by the senator had perhaps been quoted out of context.

Trump’s former lawyer never directly answered the question of what she would do if her former client asked her to launch investigations into his political “enemies.” “I certainly didn’t hear the president say that,” she said after refusing to answer the question several times. “But what I can tell you is that two-thirds of Americans have lost confidence in the Justice Department, and I think it’s statements like this that cause people to continue to lose confidence. »

No one doubts that Pam Bondi will be confirmed. Everyone agrees that his bid to lead the Justice Department is superior to that of former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first choice. But the one who served as Trump’s lawyer during the first impeachment proceedings to which he was subject refused to reassure Democrats of his independence by handling the art of dodging questions throughout his hearing.

However, she betrayed her feelings when Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz complained that the “instrumentalization” of justice had resulted in Trump being “indicted and prosecuted, not once, not twice , not three times, but four times.

Bondi interrupted him by interjecting: “And two assassination attempts!” »

We can think what we want about the “instrumentalization” of justice, but you have to be partisan, even twisted, to establish such a link.

(Photo AFP/Getty Images)