Rachel Maddow on Pam Bondi: Five things to know about Trump's (second) pick for attorney general

Summary

Rachel Maddow discusses Pam Bondi, Trump's second pick for Attorney General, highlighting controversies and past decisions that make her a questionable choice. Bondi's early entanglements with Trump's campaign and her subsequent roles in controversial political and legal battles, including her alleged misuse of power and legal judgments, underscore her tumultuous public service record. Serving as a replacement for Trump's original, more controversial nominee, Bondi brings a complex history marked by allegations of bribery, political missteps, and contentious legal stances.

Highlights

• Pam Bondi first gained attention from her ties to a controversial Las Vegas dinner involving Trump's Super PAC. 🍽️
• Controversy arose over a donation from Trump amidst legal scrutiny of Trump University by Bondi's office. 💰
• Her record as Florida's Attorney General includes supporting expedited executions, anti-gay legislation, and contentious media roles. 😬
• Bondi was a vocal Trump defender during his impeachment, often making media appearances, some of which were criticized. 📺
• In Florida, Bondi delayed a state execution for a fundraising event, sparking significant backlash. ⏳

Key Takeaways

• Pam Bondi's appointment as Attorney General was fraught with controversy, often serving as a replacement in Trump's administration. 😬
• Her history with Trump dates back to her involvement with his Super PAC, linked to a notorious Las Vegas dinner episode. 🍽️
• Questions around Bondi's tenure as Florida's Attorney General include allegations of bribery involving Trump University. 💸
• Bondi has been involved in several controversies, including anti-gay legislation and mishandling of capital punishment cases. 🏳️‍🌈
• Bondi's media appearances, particularly during Trump's impeachment, often resulted in gaffes, adding to her contentious reputation. 📺

Overview

Rachel Maddow delves into the contentious background of Pam Bondi, highlighting her as Trump's emergency pick for Attorney General. Bondi's selection was not without its controversies, as her public and professional dealings have been continuously under scrutiny. Her checkered past raises questions about her appointment, considering significant ethical and legal challenges throughout her career.

Bondi's rapport with Trump began in the wake of a problematic Las Vegas dinner, leading to her involvement with Trump's Super PAC. Her career has been marked by various scandals, including allegations of bribery related to a case involving Trump University, showing potential conflicts of interest and ethical lapses during her time as Florida's Attorney General.

Despite her contentious past, Bondi has shown unwavering support for Trump, particularly visible during his impeachment trials. However, her media blunders and controversial policy decisions, including support for anti-gay legislation and mishandling capital punishment cases, continue to highlight her as a divisive figure within the political and legal arenas.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction In the introductory chapter, the text highlights concerns regarding the lack of thorough vetting and background checks for individuals appointed by Donald Trump to significant government positions. The focus is on Trump's appointment of Pam Bondi as the Attorney General of the United States. The chapter lists 'five things to know' about Pam Bondi as a way to bridge gaps in public knowledge about her. This approach is part of a Rachel Mat show public service announcement, aiming to inform the public about key appointments in the government.
• 00:30 - 04:30: Thing 1: Origin at Benihana The chapter 'Thing 1: Origin at Benihana' narrates an incident at a charity dinner in a Benihana restaurant in Las Vegas. The event gathered prominent Republican donors, including a woman and her husband who had contributed significantly to Trump's Super PAC. Seated next to the head of the Super PAC, the event was presumably a reward for their support. However, the dinner took an unexpected turn when Mr. Lowski, head of the Super PAC, attempted inappropriate advances by trying to hold her hand.
• 04:30 - 09:00: Thing 2: Donation Controversy The chapter describes a troubling and inappropriate encounter between a woman and a man named Lowski. Lowski allegedly makes unwanted advances towards the woman, touching her leg and making lewd comments about his genitalia and sexual performance. Despite the woman's attempts to physically move away from him and deflect his advances, Lowski continues to discuss sexual topics and display inappropriate behavior, including showing her his hotel room key. The woman eventually leaves the room to escape the situation, but Lowski follows her, persisting in his conduct.
• 09:00 - 14:00: Thing 3: Execution and Ethical Concerns In the chapter titled "Thing 3: Execution and Ethical Concerns," an incident involving an unnamed individual, possibly linked to a political setting, is described. During this incident, an individual named Lowski makes a derogatory comment towards a woman, resulting in an altercation where he throws a drink at her, causing it to spill over her shoe and dress. Additionally, he verbally insults her by calling her 'stupid.' Following the altercation, the head of Trump's Super PAC was criminally charged with misdemeanor battery as a consequence of the event. As part of the legal proceedings, he paid a fine, performed community service, and committed to undergoing impulse control training.
• 14:00 - 19:00: Thing 4: Bondi's Loyalty to Trump This chapter discusses an incident involving a person associated with Donald Trump, who was charged with battery. The incident, referred to as the 'Benny Hana groping and drink throwing incident,' highlights concerns given Trump's own legal history. Despite this being a recurring issue, it presented a challenge due to its potential implications for Trump, especially considering the involvement of donors related to a super PAC.
• 19:00 - 21:00: Thing 5: Controversial Appointments and Criticisms The chapter discusses a controversial incident involving Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly acted inappropriately towards a couple by grabbing and swearing at them, and making inappropriate comments. The couple demanded a refund of their donation if Lewandowski remained with the Super PAC. They agreed to let Trump keep the money if Lewandowski was fired. Ultimately, the decision was made to retain Lewandowski, hinting at the contentious nature of appointments within the Trump circle.
• 21:00 - 21:00: Conclusion The chapter discusses an urgent situation within Donald Trump's Super PAC, where a rapid replacement was needed. Lewandowski's problematic actions led to his ouster, creating a vacancy in the leadership role. Consequently, Pam Bondi was appointed to fill this sudden need. The narrative highlights issues of misconduct and the swift decision-making within political entities, illustrating Pam Bondi's entrance into a Trump-associated role.

Rachel Maddow on Pam Bondi: Five things to know about Trump's (second) pick for attorney general Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 in the absence of any real vetting or background checks for the people who Trump has named to run big important parts of the United States government we are hoping a Rachel mat show public servant announcement can help fill in the gaps on some of these folks today we've got five things to know about Donald Trump's pick to run the justice department his choice for Attorney General of the United States Pam Bondi thing number one it all started at
• 00:30 - 01:00 a Benihana a benih Hana in Las Vegas it was a Charity Dinner a bunch of big wheel Republican donors were there and one particular Republican donor had the bad luck to be seated at the Benihana next to the head of Trump's Super PAC she and her husband had given the Super PAC a bunch of money so maybe this was supposed to be the reward of some kind it did not turn out that way quote over the course of the dinner Mr lowski tried to hold her hand and she
• 01:00 - 01:30 pushed his hand away he touched her leg and she moved it away he grabbed her napkin off her lap and tried to touch her leg again and she pulled her dress over her leg to move his hand away and cover her skin lowski allegedly remarked on the size of his genitalia described his sexual performance and showed her the key to his hotel room she said lowski repeatedly spoke about sex while using expletives quote the woman left the room room but was soon followed by
• 01:30 - 02:00 lowski who remarked that she had a nice lowski also quote threw his drink at her and it landed all over her shoe and the bottom of her dress he also quote called her stupid so the head of Trump's Super PAC was actually criminally charged after this incident he was charged with misdemeanor battery he paid a fine he did community service and he agreed to undergo impulse control
• 02:00 - 02:30 training now it's unclear whether this incident is something that would be troubling in itself to Donald Trump given his own legal history and given the fact that this was not the first time this same guy had been charged with battery even just since he'd been working for Donald Trump but the Benny Hana groping and drink throwing incident did pose at least one definite problem the couple who had given the big donation to the super pack whereupon the wife of the
• 02:30 - 03:00 couple got rewarded for that by Corey lowski allegedly grabbing her and swearing at her and telling her all about the size of his little leowski that couple reportedly said they wanted a refund of their money if leowski stayed on as the head of the Super PAC but they said if lowski was fired from the Super PAC then Trump could keep the money it may or may not surprise you to learn that a decision was made to keep
• 03:00 - 03:30 the money and fire leowski whereupon the trump super Pac needed a new replacement to run the trump super pack and that was the first time that Pam Bondi was given a job by Donald Trump because Donald Trump needed an emergency replacement for his first choice for the job because that guy got in trouble for doing something totally disgusting involving women pam pam where's Pam am I'm going to need
• 03:30 - 04:00 you the first time was taken over Trump's super pack after the Benny Hana gropa donor talk about your penis size incident the second time is now now her choice to be Attorney General of the United States Trump's first choice for the Attorney General job um he denies all wrongdoing but a congressional Ethics Committee investigation quote concluded there was substantial evidence that representative Matt Gates violated House Rules
• 04:00 - 04:30 and state and federal laws and other standards of conduct prohibiting acceptance of impermissible gifts the provision of special favors and privileges obstruction of Congress illicit drug use prostitution and statutory rape is there nothing he can't do the Matt Gates attorney general nomination lasted eight days and then collapsed under the weight of the whereupon Donald Trump knew what to do do
• 04:30 - 05:00 Pam where's pam pam one more time that's thing number one thing number two why has Pam Bondi been available to repeatedly take jobs on an emergency basis after Trump's First Choice was found to have done something very wrong involving his pants funny story about that actually when Trump was elected the first time multiple news organizations reported that he was considering Pam Bondi for a job in his new admin ation maybe he was considering
• 05:00 - 05:30 her for a big job but she never got a job in the first Trump term she never got any job why is that some reporting has suggested that it was because quote Trump staffers were concerned that questions about the donation would make confirmation hearings for Bondi difficult and damaging questions about the donation the donation in question is this one this $25,000
• 05:30 - 06:00 check when Pam Bondi was serving as attorney general in Florida the Orlando Sentinel reported that her office was looking into Floridian complaints about something called Trump University Florida residents a whole bunch of them had come to the State Attorney General's office complaining to Pam Bondi that they had been scammed by Trump University they' lost a ton of money could the Attorney General please do something about it now that report
• 06:00 - 06:30 you bondi's office looking into complaints about possible fraud Florida may join multi-state lawsuit against Trump University that report appeared in the press in Florida on a Friday four days later Tuesday that big beautiful check arrived that $25,000 check arrived at the Super PAC supporting Pam bondi's re-election in Florida a check signed by Donald Trump himself Bondi had asked Trump for the
• 06:30 - 07:00 donation the check from the Donald J Donald J Trump Foundation arrived signed by Trump himself uh she also apparently got a check from Ivanka Trump as well and you know what are you gonna do Pam bandi thereupon decided actually on second thought I don't think Florida is going to join that multi-state fraud lawsuit against Trump University after all now incidentally that lawsuit
• 07:00 - 07:30 against Trump University was successful other states like New York went ahead with it Trump had to shut down his fake University and pay more than $20 million to make the fraud claims go away incidentally he also had to pay a fine to the IRS because the check he sent to Pam Bondi while she was mulling whether or not to join the case that turned out to have been an illegal contribution from his fake charity his fake charity which was also soon shut down at as a scam ah Law and Order I
• 07:30 - 08:00 love these guys Law and Order a review ultimately cleared Pam Bondi a state prosecutor officially said it wasn't a bribe but that Fiasco obviously got a lot of press and that was in 2013 so maybe by 2017 the new Trump Administration rolls around maybe they just didn't want to sit through confirmation hearings for Pam
• 08:00 - 08:30 that would air out all that dirty laundry that said it might also have been thing number three that explains why she didn't get a job in the first Trump administration because the other thing Pam Bondi was really famous for at the time was the execution thing now I don't want to sell her short Pam Bondi asked Florida attorney general she was involved in a lot of a lot of high-profile and controversial things Pam for example was the uh lead attorney
• 08:30 - 09:00 general fighting Nationwide to get rid of Obamacare she led a fight specifically against the part of Obamacare that says you can still get health insurance if you have a pre-existing condition like you know cancer Pam Bondi was also involved in a weird incident where she started Moonlighting from the Florida Attorney General job by hosting a Fox News show repeatedly for days on end while she was also serving supposedly full-time as the top law enforcement official in her
• 09:00 - 09:30 State when that Moonlighting tripped the WTF meter in the state and people started asking about it Fox News insisted that the ethics Commission in Florida had signed off on her Moonlighting and doing this TV thing the ethics commission itself said in fact they had not Pam bandi also became the face of Florida's particularly vociferous effort to make it illegal for gay people to get married she said gay marriage harmed the
• 09:30 - 10:00 State of Florida that led to a particularly epic takedown of Miss Bondi on air by the great Anderson Cooper at CNN when she was first campaigning for office Florida's efforts to not just ban marriage but also ban gay people from adopting those efforts had been set back really embarrassingly because of a big just mortifying Scandal involving the state's highly paid big expert on the subject of G adoption um it was the
• 10:00 - 10:30 contention of this this expert the state of Florida's paid expert on the gay adoption issue that a a person can choose whether or not they're gay he said in effect that if you feel gay but you don't want to be gay that can be fixed you can be cured can you can you really did anybody ask this guy how he knows because while Pam Bondi was campaing a in to become Florida attorney
• 10:30 - 11:00 general that same guy that same expert was met at baggage claim at the Miami Airport by a Miami New Times Reporter who interviewed both the Florida state expert guy and the young man he met on rentboy.com very handsome young man the couple was on their way back to Florida from an extended European Vacation did I mention the young man from rentboy.com was very
• 11:00 - 11:30 very handsome now this story got a ton of press in Florida for all the obvious reasons but Pam Bondi nevertheless pledged to plow on with the gay adoption Ban case which had been based on confident assurances from the state of Florida's paid expert who says no one's really gay if they don't want to be the same guy reportedly paying the young man he met at rentboy.com for daily nude massages so again I don't
• 11:30 - 12:00 want to sell Pam Pam Bondi short she was involved in a lot of hairbrain controversial stuff while serving as attorney general in Florida but if there was one thing that stuck to her from her time in office in Florida it was the execution thing the State of Florida is famously enthusiastic about capital punishment Florida generally speaking kills a lot of their prisoners and Pam Bondi wanted more she was a big supporter of something called
• 12:00 - 12:30 the timely Justice act which aimed to speed up how quickly Florida can kill more of its prisoners that made for some really awkward questions when Pam bandi champion of killing prisoners faster nevertheless asked for a delay in one scheduled killing turns out she was not available to attend the execution or to attend to her responsibilities around the execution because she had a fundraiser to go to well perh perhaps it was a fundraiser
• 12:30 - 13:00 for a very good cause your mileage may vary turns out it was a fundraiser for herself a fundraising quote reelection kickoff reception for Pam Bondi it is incredibly important that the State of Florida be able to swiftly execute its death row prisoners in a timely manner unless she has plans and she had plans that fundraiser just so you know it was more than a year before she was up for reelection at the time she had nobody
• 13:00 - 13:30 even running against her but she nevertheless thought that her kickoff reception was more important than the killing she was supposed to oversee which led to headlines like this one quote only in Florida attorney general Bondi reschedules execution to avoid conflict with her fundraiser the head of one Florida public interest group said at the time quote wherever one stands on the death penalty there isn't anyone in America that believes in execution should be
• 13:30 - 14:00 postponed for political fundraising her moral compass is broken Pam Bondi ultimately apologized for having delayed the execution but even that left behind more epic Florida headlines quote attorney general vows to never again delay an execution for a fundraiser never again so maybe that was why she didn't get a job in the first Trump Administration I don't know but that brings us to number four despite never
• 14:00 - 14:30 actually getting a job in the first Donald Trump Administration Pam Bondi has stuck herself to Donald Trump like a persistent cough at his low moments at his worst moments she was involved more than people tend to remember for example there she was at the Republican National Convention Donald Trump will stop it lock her up by I love
• 14:30 - 15:00 that saying yeah lock her up I love that there she was at the stormy Daniel's hush money trial standing outside the courtroom attacking the judge in the case she came on the same day Joe Piscopo did there she was the day after the 2020 election firing some of the very first shots in the war to overthrow that election Pam Bondi held the very first overturn the election press conference in Pennsylvania that was the one where Rudy Giuliani said
• 15:00 - 15:30 some ballots might have come quote from Mars there she was just days later at Four Seasons total Landscaping where Miss Bondi reportedly oversaw the moving of the landscaping equipment to make room for the podium there she was on Fox News insisting falsely that Trump had won making wild enough claims about what she called fake ballots that even the Fox News Morning Show hosts pushed back
• 15:30 - 16:00 quote just tell us what you know pam pam at Donald Trump's first impeachment there she was on the defense team although her job was not so much to defend Trump as it was to muddy the waters she was the one on the defense team who was charged with arguing that the real Ukraine Scandal was not this impeachment thing the real Ukraine Scandal was a madeup fake bribery allegation about President Joe Biden and
• 16:00 - 16:30 we know it is a madeup fake claim because here's Pam Bondi with the guy who was the source of that claim who himself now says the allegation was not only made up it was made up by people linked to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence that's where he got it and then Pam Bondi served it up to the American people as one of Trump's lawyers he went to prison she's going to be Attorney General which brings us to thing number
• 16:30 - 17:00 five and I don't mean this in a mean way but just objectively speaking there are ways in which she is not great at this the Norway trip was June of 2015 he remained on the board until
• 17:00 - 17:30 April of 2019 part of Pam bondi's responsibilities when defending Trump in his first impeachment was not just to speak in Congress on his behalf that didn't always go great um but it was also her job to make the case for him on television and that also often did not go well know Gordon Salin well are they in
• 17:30 - 18:00 frequent contact have they been well we're going to hear what Gordon sain has to say today he was he's Ambassador does the president say short while what does the president say the president he was ambassador to the Ukraine he is ambassador to the Ukraine and the president knows him the president does not know him very well um he's a short-term ambassador of course he knows him he's the ambassador he's the ambassador to the Ukraine it's he's not the ambassador to UK Ukraine the Ukraine or Ukraine that guy had an entirely
• 18:00 - 18:30 different job headline Trump's top impeachment Defender gets sunland's job title wrong three times Pam Bondi selection to be Attorney General of the United States has been overshadowed by the circumstances in which she was selected for this job I mean even very Fierce Trump critics have effectively praised her just because she is not perceived to be
• 18:30 - 19:00 as bad as the guy who she replaced not as bad as Trump's first choice for attorney general like take for example former Republican congressman Adam kininger well I mean better than Gates I mean you know a bag filled with peanut butter would be better than Gates so you know that's a it's a low bar Pam Bondi is better than Matt Gates but also a bag filled with peanut butter is better than Matt Gates
• 19:00 - 19:30 so consider the scale here uh one outspoken critic of Pam bondes from Florida said in the Orlando Sentinel quote compared to Matt Gates Pam Bondi looks like Clarence freaking Darrow emphasis in the original Rachel mat show producer Steve bennon who is a man not prone to hyperbole uh he said memorably about her selection quote it would be effectively impossible to pick someone more repulsive than Matt Gates so as a person who's definitely
• 19:30 - 20:00 less repulsive than the most repulsive Choice imaginable I mean congratulations Pam bondy congratulations Pam where's Pam but in a job where the main reassurance to the nation is supposed to be that you know Justice will be served and the law will be upheld without fear or favor or deference to anyone Pam Bondi is one of four of his own personal defense lawyers that Donald
• 20:00 - 20:30 Trump is trying to install at the top of the justice department and the way she appears to have earned this nomination is by defending and participating with Trump in some of the most repulsive things that he has done in public life lock her up I love that pimp Bondi loves the idea of incarcerating Donald Trump's political opponents she loves it she says that the people at the justice department who prosecuted Trump for his crimes will
• 20:30 - 21:00 themselves be prosecuted now as attorney general she will be in a position to do that she was not his first choice for this job she was the emergency replacement again but that really isn't the most important thing to know about Pam Bondi as our potential next attorney general which is why this has been another Rachel mat show public servant announcement e