Attorney-general pick Bondi claims justice department ‘targeted’ Trump under Biden – US politics live | Trump administration

Climate activists called on senators to reject Trump’s energy secretary pick Chris Wright, ahead of his confirmation hearing today.

The hearing for Wright, a fracking and fossil fuel executive who has said “there is no climate crisis,” comes as deadly wildfires continue to devastate the Los Angeles area, killing at least 25 people.

Participants convened by the youth-led environmental justice group the Sunrise Movement chanted: “Reject Chris Wright, we won’t burn, we will fight.” They were joined by congresspeople Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Ro Khanna of California, as well as Massachusetts senator Ed Markey, all climate hawks.

“Trump decided not to appoint a cabinet, but a cartel,” Markey said, adding that he is working to introduce a bill aiming to keep fossil fuel interests out of the White House.

Despite widespread scientific evidence showing the climate crisis has increased the severity and frequency of wildfires, Wright has claimed there is no connection. He has also promised to clear the way for the continued expansion of planet-heating fossil fuels.

“We need to say no to Chris Wright and his agenda of unconditional drilling,” said Khanna.

At the press conference, survivors of devastating California wildfires spoke out, demanding senators keep Wright out of the energy department. A 21-year-old activist described a moment four years ago, when she was “choking” on wildfire smoke.

“As I lay awake, my lungs burning and my nose full of smoke,” she said, “I remembered that every decimal of a degree of global temperature rise prevented can save countless lives.”

Other climate groups are also speaking out against Wright’s appointment.

“Chris Wright is the personification of ‘conflict of interest,” said Mahyar Sorour, director of beyond fossil fuels policy at green group the Sierra Club. “As Americans from coast to coast are living with the catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis, the last thing we need is a climate-denying fossil fuel executive at the helm of our nation’s energy policy.”

Andrew Roth

Three protesters have been detained by Capitol police for interrupting Marco Rubio’s opening remarks at his confirmation hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee.

One man yelled that Rubio had supported US “forever wars” abroad, an elderly woman complained in Spanish about his record on Nicaragua, and a third said she opposed the US policy of using sanctions abroad. In each case, Capitol police moved quickly into the crowd, grabbed the protester, and dragged the person from the room.

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A sergeant at arms had earlier warned that anyone who disrupted the confirmation hearings for Rubio could face arrest under the DC criminal code.

Jim Risch, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, began the hearing on Wednesday by warning that he was “significantly less tolerant than my predecessors regarding demonstrations or communications or disruptions during the committee”.

“This place is not a place for demonstrations or communications with members of the committee,” he said. “We have work to do the government’s work here … We’re not going to tolerate any type of disruptions, communications or anything like that … Distractions will include not only noise, but also standing up, holding up hands, signs, no one will be allowed to do that.”

If the committee is disrupted, he said that he would ask the sergeant at arms and the Capitol police to intervene.

Andrew Roth

About 20 protesters from activist groups including Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace and others were first in line to protest at the confirmation hearings of senator Marco Rubio at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday, with several calling him a “warmonger” and an “imperialist”.

The protesters wore pink T-shirts bearing slogans such as “Hands off Palestine!”, “Hands off Iran!” and “Hands off Greenland!” and had painted their hands red to represent the “blood of the victims” of US policies abroad, according to organiser Medea Benjamin.

Several of those attending may be ready to disrupt the proceeding, Benjamin added, without elaborating.

One of the protesters, Adnaan Stumo, called Rubio “one of the worst warmongers”.

“He’s been trying to get us to to dominate, to invade and to carry out coups everywhere, from Iran to Russia to Venezuela to Cuba to China,” he said.

“Some of us think that Trump really has some good sentiments in wanting to get out of Ukraine,” Benjamin said before the hearing.

“But on the other hand, he’s surrounding himself with all of these war hawks, and Marco Rubio is one of them,” said Benjamin.

“It’s a mix [of political views] but we’re also angry at the Democrats of the genocide and then four years of a horrible foreign policy,” she said, adding that many were upset in particular by the US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

“A lot of us are upset with the Democrats and the Republicans, and we think that we’re being run by two parties that are very pro-war and giving almost $1bn, almost $1tn, to the Pentagon when we have so many needs here at home, and … I think left and right come together, because that is the general sentiment in this country,” she said.

Under questioning from Democratic ranking member Dick Durbin, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi dodged when asked if she believed Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election in 2020.

“To my knowledge, Donald Trump has never acknowledged the legal results of the 2020 election. Are you prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?” Durbin asked.

“President Biden is the president of the United States. He was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024,” Bondi responded.

Pressed further by Durbin, Bondi continued to equivocate:

All I can tell you, as a prosecutor, is from my first-hand experience, and I accept the results. I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is president of the United States. But what I can tell you is what I saw first-hand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the campaign. I was an advocate for the campaign, and I was on the ground in Pennsylvania, and I saw many things there. But do I accept the results? Of course, I do. Do I agree with what happened? I saw so much.

You know, no one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity in our country. We should all want our elections to be free and fair, and the rules and the laws to be followed.

“I think that question deserved a yes or no. And I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren’t prepared to answer yes,” Durbin said.

Pam Bondi said she would fight “partisanship” and “weaponization” at the justice department as attorney general – an echo of language Republicans used to attack Joe Biden’s attempts to hold Donald Trump to account for overturning the 2020 election.

“Like the president, I believe we are on the cusp of a new golden age where the department of justice can and will do better if I am confirmed. Lastly, and most importantly, if confirmed, I will fight every day to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice and each of its components. The partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone. America will have one tier of justice for all,” Bondi said.

As Trump’s legal trouble mounted, he and his allies increasingly accused Biden of “weaponizing” federal law enforcement. Here’s a look back at that:

Hugo Lowell

Ivan Raiklin, the far-right political operative who was investigated by the House January 6 committee for his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has shown up at Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing.

Next up was Democratic ranking member Dick Durbin, who said he wanted to know whether Pam Bondi would stand up to Donald Trump, if he were to give her an illegal order.

“I need to know that you would tell the president no if you’re asked to do something that is wrong, illegal or unconstitutional,” Durbin said.

He turned to her background of supporting Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election:

Ms Bondi, you are one of four Trump personal lawyers that he has already selected for top positions in the Department of Justice. You joined Mr Trump in working to overturn the 2020 election. You repeatedly described investigations and prosecutions of Mr Trump, Trump as witch-hunts, and you have echoed his calls for investigating and prosecuting his political opponents.

This flies in the face of evidence like Mr Trump’s call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, we’ve all heard that audio recording. These are the kinds of anti-democratic efforts that in the past you have defended, and it’s critical that we understand whether you remain supportive of Mr Trump’s actions.

In his opening statement, the judiciary committee’s Republican chair, Chuck Grassley, described the justice department as riven with politicization, and said Pam Bondi was the right pick to reverse that trend.

He then launched into attacks on a variety of investigations, some from years ago, that Republicans have claimed are unconstitutional scandals. These include the investigation of ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, and former special counsel Jack Smith’s attempts to prosecute Trump under Joe Biden.

“The justice department is infected with political decision making, while its leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality,” Grassley said.

He zeroed in on the investigation into Trump’s possession of classified documents, which Smith took over after FBI agents searched the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022:

Then we get to special counsel, Jack Smith and his lawfare operation. It involved an unprecedented FBI raid on Trump’s house, including agents that even searched the former first lady’s clothing drawers. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden certainly did not receive the same treatment by government regarding their records, indeed, as my oversight exposed.

Grassley closed with:

Ms Bondi, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department’s course must be for accountability, so that the conduct I just described never happens again. The only way to accomplish this is through transparency for the Congress and the American people.

Hugo Lowell

Senate judiciary committee chair Chuck Grassley is running through Pam Bondi’s resume as a prosecutor at the start of her confirmation hearing for attorney general.

The hearing room is mainly full but there are some spare seats, which reflects the fact that Bondi is one of Trump’s least controversial nominees and has not generated the same immense interest for Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth yesterday.

Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general Pam Bondi is set to soon appear before the Senate judiciary committee for the first day of her confirmation hearings.

The former Florida attorney general has voiced support for Trump’s baseless claims that fraud was the cause of his re-election defeat in 2020. The president-elect nominated her to lead the justice department after his first choice, former congressman Matt Gaetz, bowed out amid reports of his sexual misconduct.

Bondi will take more questions from senators tomorrow. Follow along as we cover today’s hearing live.

Joni Ernst saw combat as an army national guard soldier in Iraq, and now represents Iowa in the Senate. The Republican was an early holdout to former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon, since he has publicly said that women should not serve in military combat roles.

Hegseth walked that stance back at his confirmation hearing yesterday, and in a statement released last night, Ernst confirmed she will vote for him:

After four years of weakness in the White House, Americans deserve a strong Secretary of Defense. Our next commander in chief selected Pete Hegseth to serve in this role, and after our conversations, hearing from Iowans, and doing my job as a United States Senator, I will support President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense. As I serve on the Armed Services Committee, I will work with Pete to create the most lethal fighting force and hold him to his commitments of auditing the Pentagon, ensuring opportunity for women in combat while maintaining high standards, and selecting a senior official to address and prevent sexual assault in the ranks.

Democrats at the hearing tried to steer the attention of lawmakers towards the allegation of sexual assault made against Hegseth, which he denies, as well as stories that he drank to excess and mismanaged the finances of two veterans charities. None of those reports appeared to sway Republicans, and Ernst’s endorsement is widely viewed as giving him the votes he needs to win Senate confirmation.

Here’s a look back at yesterday’s hearing:

Good morning, US politics blog readers. A battery of Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet are going before senators today, including South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to lead the homeland security department, senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state and former congressman and intelligence official John Ratcliffe as director of the CIA. But the marquee event of the day will be former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing to lead the justice department, a role in which she could make good on Trump’s promises to retaliate against his political enemies. Bondi voiced support for Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election, and you can expect Democratic senators to demand answers about whether she would bring election denialism into the justice department, if confirmed.

Meanwhile, it appears that Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who Trump nominated to serve as his defense secretary, won over a key Republican senator in his tense confirmation hearing yesterday. Iowa’s Joni Ernst has announced that she will support Hegseth, after expressing hesitation over comments he had made opposing women serving in combat roles. Hegseth has been dogged by a sexual assault allegation and reports of excessive drinking and financial mismanagement, but Ernst’s endorsement is seen as a major step to winning over other Republicans wary of installing him at the Pentagon.

Here’s what else is going on today:

• Joe Biden will deliver his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office at 8pm.

• Inflation, the politically damaging economic trend Trump vowed to reverse, came in slightly higher than expected in December, according to just-released consumer price data from the labor department.

• Dangerous winds are expected to strike fire-ravaged parts of Southern California again, threatening new blazes. Follow our live blog for more.