Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) signaled during an interview that he could be open to voting “yes” on Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Coons said during his Thursday appearance on CNN that the most important thing he was looking to hear from Bondi during the Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is “whether or not she would be independent, whether or not she would protect the Department of Justice from direct interference by the White House or President-Elect Trump.”
The Delaware Senator told CNN host Brianna Keilar that Bondi, an ex-Florida attorney general, failed to “answer that in the sort of clear, forceful and direct way that I expected.”
Keilar then said that Bondi pledged to follow the policy of separation between the White House and the DOJ. She asked if Coons did or did not hear anything “specific” about the policy that “didn’t meet the senator’s requirement.
Coons said he had to monitor the meeting alongside the hearing for Trump’s Secretary of State nominee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), though he asked his counsel to provide him with a transcript of Bondi’s hearing to review in order to her a “fair shot,” adding that he backed some of Trump’s administration picks back in 2017.
With Bondi, Coons said he was looking for a “clear” answer on if career DOJ officials brought “a criminal charge that’s well predicated, well-founded” and Trump’s White House told her not to support it, what would she do in that case.
“Now, I want to go back and review the transcript,” Coons said Thursday on “CNN Newsroom.” “But I wasn’t satisfied. My recollection is of the answers I got at the time – and I want to make sure I’m being fair here – but she hedged and she hawed.”
The Delaware senator, a President Biden ally, lauded Bondi for giving “clear and good” answers to two of his questions – if Trump can run for a third term and who will she serve if confirmed by the Senate – and added that he is “still considering and want to make sure that I review exactly what she said in that hearing.”
“There are things that were positive about her record,” he said. “Working on criminal justice reform, working on combating the fentanyl and opioid epidemic, and working to combat human trafficking. So I do think this is a close call.”
A day earlier, also on CNN, Coons said he was a no on Bondi, but he wants “to be fair.”
“I’m a no right now, but … I’m going to go back and review the transcript,” Coons told CNN host Kaitlyn Collins. “I am trying to be fair, and I’m trying to give her a reasonable shot at earning my vote, but I was not satisfied by the end of today’s hearing.”
Trump’s pick to be the next top law enforcement official was grilled by various senators during her hearing on Wednesday. She was pressed if she would push back versus Trump, who has previously said he would be open to going after his political enemies. Bondi did not commit when asked during the hearing if she would decline to probe special counsel Jack Smith, who resigned from the DOJ last week.
Republican senators on the panel pushed back against many lines of questions from their colleagues, especially those related to the DOJ’s independence.
“The focus of these questions today are disturbing. I don’t think my Democrat colleagues learned very much from the Nov. 5 election,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said.
