WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate Tuesday night voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general under the second Donald Trump administration.
It was the expected outcome for the former Florida attorney general, who garnered unanimous support from Senate Republicans. But her confirmation comes amid concerns from Democrats, who have worried about her loyalty to the president.
The Senate voted 54-46 to confirm Bondi to her post, with all GOP lawmakers voting in favor. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, broke with his colleagues to approve her nomination.
In a statement following the vote, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the nominee’s approval was a “victory for the rule of law.”
“As Florida’s Attorney General, she didn’t shy away from hard work or complicated problems,” Grassley wrote. “I expect her to take the same tough, unbiased approach as U.S. Attorney General.”
But for Senate Democrats who opposed her nomination, Bondi’s perceived bias towards Trump was a chief concern.
In the hours before lawmakers cast their final votes on the nominee, a group of Democrats took to the Senate floor to voice final concerns about her loyalty to the president.
Democratic lawmakers have long worried that Bondi would place her relationship with the president ahead of her duty to lead an independent and politically impartial Justice Department. And on Tuesday, ahead of her confirmation vote in the Senate, they rehashed those concerns.
“Given that Ms. Bondi, when speaking about President Trump’s criminal indictments, threatened that the prosecutors will be prosecuted and the investigators will be investigated, I have serious doubts about her willingness to say ‘no’ to the president,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin in remarks on the Senate floor.
Bondi, tapped by Trump in November to be the country’s top lawyer, has a long history with the president. During his first administration, she served as White House counsel — defending Trump during his first impeachment trial. She later worked as a principal legal adviser for the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-affiliated research and advocacy organization.
The nominee’s independence was a central theme of Democratic cross-examination during her January nomination hearing, with lawmakers questioning whether she would be willing to refuse unlawful or unconstitutional orders from Trump and maintain a Justice Department free from political influence.
Bondi told senators at the time that she would “never play politics” as attorney general. Despite that, she refused to answer directly whether former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, opting instead to simply acknowledge that Biden had been president.
On Tuesday, Durbin argued that the attorney general nominee had been handpicked for the role because she is in “lockstep” with Trump.
The Illinois Democrat worried about the nominee’s willingness to oversee efforts by the White House to pack the Justice Department with loyalists who would use their positions to pursue political retribution against enemies of the president. He pointed to recent reports that the administration has already begun a “purge” at the agency, reassigning or removing officials who were involved with the investigation and prosecution against Trump.
Durbin was joined on the Senate floor by several Democrats who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, all of whom expressed their reservations with Bondi’s nomination.
Vermont Senator Peter Welch argued that presidents were entitled to pick their cabinet and that he had no problem with Trump selecting someone close to him to fill the role of attorney general.
“My orientation is that the president is entitled to the benefit of the doubt — but not a blank check,” Welch said.
While he felt that Bondi was accomplished in her role as Florida attorney general and qualified to lead the Justice Department, Welch explained that his issue lay in what he said was the president’s belief that the agency should work on his behalf.
“My grave concern is really about President Trump and what he is clearly demanding,” the senator said. “That clearly is a loyalty oath to him as opposed to a demand for straightforward, candid advice.”
Despite fretting from Democrats about Bondi’s independence from the White House, the nominee’s confirmation by the Senate’s Republican majority long appeared likely. Lawmakers voted 52-46 Monday evening to move ahead with a confirmation vote, signaling that Bondi had more than enough GOP support to clear the final hurdle.
Bondi was Trump’s second candidate to lead the Justice Department. The president in November selected former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz for the role, but his nomination took just days to crumble as Senate Republicans backed away from him amid an ethics maelstrom.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s move to ink Bondi as attorney general comes as Democrats are raising fresh concerns about Kash Patel, tapped by Trump to lead the FBI.
Durbin and his colleagues on the Judiciary Committee penned a letter to panel chairman Senator Chuck Grassley Tuesday afternoon demanding that he hold a new hearing for the nominee. The lawmakers contended that reports of removals and reassignments within the agency warranted a reexamination of Patel’s nomination and accused the FBI pick of making false statements to senators during testimony last week.