Congress
It was Pam Bondi’s hearing. Kash Patel was in the hot seat.
If you closed your eyes, you might’ve thought Kash Patel was in the witness chair.
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats spent Wednesday pummeling President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to become FBI director at a confirmation hearing for his prospective boss: attorney general nominee Pam Bondi.
Ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois raised Patel’s commentary about QAnon conspiracy theories. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota worried about Patel’s comments about targeting the media. Several Democratic senators expressed concern about his purported “enemies list” of people he believes should be investigated or prosecuted.
It all amounted to signs that Democrats view Patel — a polarizing MAGA loyalist who served in Trump’s first administration— as an easier target than Bondi, who seems to be on a glide path to confirmation.
Democrats have widely conceded they will save their energy fighting other of Trump’s more controversial nominees than they will Bondi, who they appear to consider qualified as a former Florida attorney general. Some Democrats even thanked the nominee for productive conversations about bipartisan issues, such as combating fentanyl addiction and human trafficking.
“If they’re asking about Kash Patel, it must be going pretty well,” quipped Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
The fixation on Patel by Democrats became clear early in Bondi’s confirmation hearing and remained consistent throughout her nearly 6 hours in front of the Judiciary Committee.
“My concern, on the basis of statements that President-elect Trump has made, is that he does identify people as political enemies … and there may come a day where there is pressure on you,” said Vermont Sen. Peter Welch. “I’m just going to express my hope that … when it comes to the constitution or pressure from a higher official, you’re going to choose the constitution.”
Bondi gave a full-throated endorsement of Patel, arguing he was the “right person” for the job and well-qualified. She also declined to defend or criticize his past statements, saying she was unfamiliar with them and would let him speak to them at his own confirmation hearing.
“I don’t believe he has an enemies list. He made a quote on TV that I have not heard,” Bondi said, deftly avoiding discussion of a book Patel wrote containing a long list of “Government Gangsters.”
At times, Bondi sought to remind the committee, gingerly, that she would be Patel’s superior. “Mr. Patel would fall under me and the Department of Justice and I will ensure that all laws are followed — and so will he.”
When Durbin raised Patel’s agreement with aspects of QAnon’s agenda, Bondi seemed to express relief that he would soon be in the hot seat instead of her.
“I look forward to hearing his testimony about QAnon in front of this committee,” Bondi said.
Bondi, a friend and ally of Trump for years, served as Trump’s lawyer during his first impeachment trial and assisted Rudy Guiliani in efforts to block Joe Biden’s Pennsylvania win in the 2020 election. Democratic Senators pressed Bondi on whether she believed Biden won that election, a question she repeatedly sidestepped. Bondi also declined to answer whether she would prosecute Jack Smith, the special prosecutor overseeing investigations into Trump, though she repeatedly emphasized she would be guided by facts, not politics.
In her remarks, Bondi vowed the Department of Justice would not pursue political investigations, despite Trump’s repeated calls for some of his staunchest adversaries to face prosecution.
“The partisanship, the weaponization will be gone,” Bondi said. “America must have one tier of justice for all.”
At the same time, Bondi tangled with some of Trump’s harshest critics on the committee. Her combativeness sometimes crossed lines that pending nominees rarely cross, such as when she mentioned California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff’s censure by the House for his handling of Trump-related investigations.
Schiff, a longtime representative, was elected to the Senate last year and is now serving on the Judiciary Committee.
When Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse went over his allotted time, Bondi joked that she’d like that time taken away from one of her toughest interlocutors. “Can we take a minute off Sen. Schiff?” she asked, puzzling Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Chair, who didn’t immediately pick up on the joke.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Bondi seemed to be trying to avoid saying anything that would provoke Trump, which sometimes complicated her ability to answer simple questions.
“She very artfully dodged questions about whether Pres. Trump lost the 2020 election, which clearly is designed for an audience of one–that’s Donald Trump,” Blumenthal told reporters toward the end of Wednesday’s hearing. “He knows she’s here. She knows he’s watching. And I think that audience is clearly a presence in the room.”
Congress
DHS stopgap set for quick House action after Rules Committee vote
The House Rules Committee advanced a measure Friday evening that would fund the entirety of the Homeland Security Department through May 22 — without setting up debate or a separate vote on the funding bill itself.
The panel, after a raucous meeting that devolved into shouting at multiple points, voted 8-4 on party lines to advance the measure to the floor.
The rule includes a “deem and pass” provision, a tactic that allows legislation to be passed by the House automatically once the rule itself is adopted. While there will be one hour of floor debate and a vote on the rule, there will not be a standalone House vote on the DHS spending bill.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) described himself as needing “a neck brace” from the whiplash of hearing Republicans argue for hours that the Senate’s early-morning voice vote on a different DHS funding measure was “shameful” for lack of transparency and accountability.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) accused the Senate of moving their bill “in the middle of the night, with the smell of jet fumes in the air,” lamenting that the House was left “to take it or leave it.”
House leaders, McGovern suggested, have chosen a similar path by fast-tracking the eight-week DHS stopgap.
“You’re in charge,” he told Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.). “You can do whatever the hell you want to do.”
Congress
Rand Paul weighs a 2028 presidential bid
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is considering a bid for president in 2028, as Republicans jockey for the future of the GOP post-Trump.
In a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview airing Sunday, a reporter asked Paul about an article that implied he would be running for president.
“We’re thinking about it,” Paul said. “I would say fifty-fifty,” adding that he would make a final decision after the midterm elections.
Paul ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 with a libertarianism-focused campaign but ultimately dropped out after a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses and a shortage of cash. He instead ran for reelection to the Senate.
Paul has had a complex relationship with his own party and with President Donald Trump, often finding himself the lone Republican on certain issues. More recently, he was the only Republican to support a joint resolution that would limit Trump’s war powers in Iran.
His father, former Rep. Ron Paul, also ran for president three times: first as a Libertarian in 1988, and twice as a Republican in 2008 and 2012.
Congress
‘Meltdown’: DHS shutdown set to drag on after House GOP rejects Senate deal
House Republicans moved Friday to further extend the six-week shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security by rejecting a Senate bill that would fund the vast majority of DHS agencies through September.
Instead, Speaker Mike Johnson proposed a temporary extension of DHS funding through May 22 — a plan that has uncertain prospects in the House and certainly won’t pass the Senate before the shutdown becomes the longest funding lapse in U.S. history Saturday.
But Johnson said House Republicans simply could not swallow the Senate bill, which omits funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Border Patrol and some other parts of Customs and Border Protection.
“The Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” he said. “We are going to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens because it is a basic function of the government. The Democrats fundamentally disagree.”
The move toward an eight-week stopgap creates a tactical gulf between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who called an end to weeks of abortive bipartisan talks Thursday and pushed through the funding bill in hopes of tacking on funding later for ICE and CBP in a party-line budget reconciliation bill.
President Donald Trump has largely stayed out of the GOP infighting on Capitol Hill, keeping his criticism trained on Democrats. He ordered DHS to pay TSA officers Thursday as long security lines snarls more U.S. airports.
Johnson played down the split with his Senate counterpart, saying the Democratic leader there bore more blame for the impasse.
“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this,” he said. “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate have forced this upon the Senate. I have to protect the House. … Our colleagues on this side understand this is not a game. We are not playing their games.”
Thune said early Friday morning he did not speak directly to Johnson in the final hours leading up to the Senate’s voice vote, but he said they had texted. He acknowledged he did not know in advance how the House would handle the Senate bill.
“Hopefully they’ll be around, and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
Johnson made his game plan clear with House Republicans on a private call just minutes before addressing reporters in the Capitol, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the call. He warned that a failure to advance the short-term DHS stopgap would upend GOP plans for a reconciliation bill, the people said.
He suggested the Senate could quickly clear the stopgap measure once it passes the House. Most senators have left Washington for a recess running through April 13, but Johnson said the chamber could approve the House measure by unanimous consent at a planned pro forma session Monday.
But some House Republicans on the private call, including Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, aired doubts it could pass the Senate — or even the House. Some fellow GOP centrists argued that the House should just swallow the Senate bill and end the standoff.
The House plan for a 60-day stopgap won a cold reception in the Senate, with even Republicans warning it will only prolong the partial government shutdown.
The plan is instead fueling frustration among both Republicans and Democrats who view House Republicans as essentially throwing temper tantrum. Three people granted anonymity to speak candidly each described the House as having a “meltdown.”
Schumer publicly slammed the House GOP plan Friday, saying it was “dead on arrival” across the Capitol, “and Republicans know it.”
A Senate GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly added that the quickest way to end the shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate bill.
Five people granted anonymity to comment on Senate dynamics said there was no possibility that Democrats would let the House GOP plan pass during the Senate’s brief pro forma sessions over the next two weeks. It would only take one Democratic senator to show up and object to any attempt to pass it.
The bill, according to the five people, also can’t get 60 votes in the Senate once the chamber returns. Democrats have previously rejected even shorter stopgaps, leaving some to privately question why House Republicans would ever think their plan would work.
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