Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) suggested in an interview that he is “prepared to vote yes” on President-elect Trump's pick for head of the Department of Justice, Pam Bondi.
Coons said on CNN on Thursday that the most important thing he wanted to hear from Bondi during Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was “whether she would be independent and whether she would protect the Justice Department from direct interference.” he said. by the White House or President-elect Trump. ”
The Delaware senator told CNN host Brianna Keilar that Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, “was not able to answer in the clear, forceful, direct way that I had hoped.”
Keillor then said Bondi has promised to abide by the separation policy of the White House and the Justice Department. She asked if Mr. Coons had heard or not heard anything “specific” about policies that “do not meet the demands of the senators.”
Mr. Coons said he needed to monitor the meeting in parallel with Mr. Trump's confirmation hearing for Secretary of State Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), but he asked Mr. Bondi to confirm the content. He said he has asked his lawyer to provide records of the public hearing. “It's a fair call,” he said, adding that he supported some of the Trump administration's policy candidates in 2017.
Coons asked Bondy what he would do if career Justice Department officials filed “well-founded and well-founded criminal charges” against him and the Trump White House instructed him not to support them. He said he was looking for a “clear” answer. .
“I want to go back now and review the record,” Coons told “CNN Newsroom” on Thursday. “But I wasn't satisfied. My memory is the answer I got at the time – and I want to be fair here – but she evaded, she evaded .”
The Delaware senator, an ally of President Biden, said Bondi responded to two questions about whether Trump could run for a third term and who would take office if confirmed by the Senate. He praised him for giving a clear and good answer, adding: “He is.” It's still under consideration and we want to see exactly what she said at the hearing. ”
“There were some positives on her record,” he said. “Working on criminal justice reform, fighting the fentanyl and opioid epidemic, fighting human trafficking. So I think this is a close call.”
The day before, on CNN, Coons said he disagreed with Bondi but “wanted to be fair.”
“Right now, no, but I'm going to go back and review the record,” Coons told CNN host Caitlin Collins. “I try to be fair and try to make reasonable efforts to get her my vote, but I was not satisfied at the end of today's hearing.”
Trump's nomination to be the next top law enforcement official was heavily criticized by various senators during a hearing Wednesday. She was pressed on whether she would push back against Trump, who had previously said he was open to pursuing political opponents. Bondi did not respond when asked during the hearing whether he would recuse himself from the investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who resigned from the Justice Department last week.
Republican senators on the committee pushed back against many of their colleagues' questions, particularly regarding the independence of the Justice Department.
“The focus of these questions today is alarming. I don't think our Democratic colleagues learned much from the November 5th election,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri).