Pa. and N.J. Democrats take a victory lap after Pam Bondi’s firing: ‘Good riddance’
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee had tried to impeach Bondi during her tenure. Sen. Andy Kim said she had operated as Trump's personal lawyer.
WASHINGTON— Democratic lawmakers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey said “good riddance” on Thursday after President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who once helped spread the president’s false claims about election fraud in Pennsylvania and went on to face bipartisan criticism over her leadership of the Justice Department.
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee — a Pittsburgh Democrat who took a national lead in subpoenaing Bondi’s department and then trying to impeach her — credited her work alongside other lawmakers as playing a role in making Bondi the second of Trump’s cabinet members to be ousted in just a one-month span.
“Thanks to our legislative efforts and pressure on this administration, Pam Bondi can no longer weaponize the Department of Justice and further betray the American people,” Lee said in a statement.
In a social media post, she also referenced a moment from two weeks ago when U.S. Rep. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told Lee during a closed hearing that she was “bitching” about Bondi’s delay in releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
“So glad I didn’t listen to [Comer] when he told me to stop bitching about impeaching Bondi and holding her accountable,” Lee wrote.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general in the wake of Bondi’s firing. Bondi said in a social media post that over the month she’ll work to transition the office to Blanche “before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about.”
Lee, the only Pennsylvania Democrat on the oversight committee, sponsored the original subpoena demanding the Justice Department turn over all files in its Epstein investigation. She repeatedly insisted the department was illegally disobeying both the subpoena and a separate law later passed by Congress to reveal all the documents.
Her resolution to impeach Bondi, introduced in March and racking up only seven Democratic cosponsors, was unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled House.
Other lawmakers from the region on Thursday referenced Bondi’s role in launching investigations into Trump’s perceived enemies during the first year of his new term.
“Pam Bondi took her role as Attorney General and turned it into personal lawyer for the president,” U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) said on social media. “She enabled historic corruption, weaponized the DOJ to direct political prosecutions of Trump’s enemies, and failed to obtain justice for the Epstein survivors.”
Both Kim and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D., Allegheny) also said, “Good riddance” to Bondi in their posts — with Deluzio’s also including an internet meme in which he indicated “nothing of value was lost” with the firing.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), the only Democrat to vote for Bondi when she was confirmed by the Senate last year, did not immediately issue a statement Thursday afternoon. Neither had U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), who also voted for Bondi.
Bondi’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election were a top reason for Democrats, other than Fetterman, in voting against her confirmation.
A former Florida attorney general, Bondi represented Trump as he fought the election results, including in Pennsylvania when the critical swing state went for former President Joe Biden. She appeared in Philadelphia the day after the election with other members of Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani, and falsely declared that “Trump won Pennsylvania.”
Bondi, during her confirmation hearing last year, accused U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Calif.) of bullying her when he asked her about that comment, which he said came when more than 1 million ballots had still not been counted.
As attorney general, she has also waded into election administration issues as Trump continues to claim the 2020 race was rigged. Her department has sought voter registration information in Pennsylvania and other states, including through a federal lawsuit that Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said was “unprecedented and unlawful.”
Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files had also been widely criticized by conservatives who wanted Trump to quickly release the documents, though GOP lawmakers in Congress had not gone as far as Lee in calling for her impeachment.
Democrats said Thursday they still want Bondi to comply with a subpoena to testify even if she’s no longer serving as attorney general. Lee, referring to Epstein files still in possession of the Justice Department, said she looks “forward to questioning Pam Bondi for her role in this cover-up at her deposition.”
Bondi’s ousting follows Trump’s firing last month of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose handling of immigration enforcement efforts had been widely unpopular.
Fetterman had previously called for Noem’s firing. But as someone who regularly breaks with his party, he also immediately supported and voted for her replacement, now-Secretary Markwayne Mullin. After receiving intense blowback for that decision among Democrats, the senator did not similarly weigh in after the latest announcement Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), meanwhile, said the firings should not stop with Bondi and Noem.
In a social media post responding to the fact that both fired cabinet members were women, Evans said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should be next because of his role leading the war in Iran and for previously using the Signal app to discuss secret information.
“Apparently putting our troops and national security at risk isn’t enough to get someone fired in the Trump-Vance administration,” Evans wrote. “Trump has fired 2 women from his cabinet, but he’s kept Pete Hegseth, who should have been already fired OVER A YEAR AGO after Signalgate — a firing I repeatedly called for at the time!”