Trump announces Pam Bondi is his new AG pick after Gaetz withdraws
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(NEW YORK) — On the same day that former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, Trump announced that he will pick former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to fill that role in his administration.
Bondi, 59, has remained in Trump’s inner circle for years and has continued to advise him on legal matters. She was one of the lawyers who defended Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial.
“I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Bondi’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. She did not immediately comment about Trump’s announcement.
For more than a decade, Bondi has been a key Trump supporter and has been involved in some controversies, including the “big lie,” pushed by Trump in 2020.
In 2013, the Trump Foundation sent a $25,000 donation to Bondi’s fundraising committee for her attorney general reelection campaign. Around the same time, Bondi’s office had been considering reviewing a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general’s office that probed Trump and Trump University, but it ultimately did not join the suit.
Bondi and Trump both denied allegations that the donation led to her decision to not join the lawsuit. She endorsed Trump for his presidential run and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention leading a “lock her up chant” against then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. She also served as a co-chair of Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.
Bondi left the Florida Attorney General’s office in 2019 and a year later was named part of Trump’s defense team for his first impeachment trial. He was acquitted in the Senate.
Bondi continued to be part of Trump’s legal team during the 2020 election and repeatedly made false claims about voter fraud when he lost to Joe Biden.
Recently, she has been a member of the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute where she serves as the chair for the Center for Litigation, and co-chair of the Center for Law and Justice, according to the think tank’s website.
(FLINT, Mich.) — Vice President Kamala Harris dunked on former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, particularly on the auto industry at her rally Friday night, with an assist from NBA star and Michigan native, Magic Johnson.
“When it came to building the cars of the future, Donald Trump sat on the sidelines and let China dominate and then he talks down to American workers, saying ‘we can’t compete with Chinese workers,'” Harris said. “And make no mistake, Donald Trump is no friend of labor.”
Harris’ attacks focused on what she said was her rival’s unkept promises on manufacturing and putting Michigan auto jobs at risk something her campaign attacked Trump on the same topic in a digital ad launched last month.
The vice president also highlighted comments that Vance made earlier this week about whether the Trump administration would honor a $500 million grant going to General Motors to convert a Lansing plant to make electric vehicles.
“So, two days ago, Donald Trump’s running mate suggested that if Trump wins, he might let the Grand River assembly plant in Lansing close down, the same plant that our administration helped save earlier this year, along with 650 union jobs,” Harris said. “Michigan, we together fought hard for those jobs, and you deserve a president who won’t put them at risk.”
Asked by the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday whether Trump would honor or cancel the Biden administration grant, Vance didn’t give a direct answer.
“First of all, the $500 million grant came along with some really ridiculous strings and no protections for American jobs not getting shipped to foreign countries because a lot of not just the cars themselves, but the battery components, the minerals, this stuff is all produced in China, and so when we write massive checks on American taxpayer expense to these companies, a lot of times what we’re doing is selling American middle class jobs to the Communist Chinese, and we ought to be doing exactly the opposite,” Vance told the Detroit Free Press.
“We ought to be rebuilding the American middle class and investing in our own workers, not shipping our tax dollars off to electric vehicles made in China,” Vance added.
In Michigan, Trump is running a new ad targeting auto workers, accusing Harris of wanting to “end all gas powered cars” and force Americans to drive electric vehicles. Harris shot back Friday night.
“Let us be clear: Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” Harris said. “But here’s what I will do, I will invest in communities like Flint.”
Johnson, who is from Lansing and went to Michigan State, spoke in the program ahead of Harris, and praised her as “strong,” “smart” and “passionate.”
“Nobody’s going to outwork her. She’s committed to you as the people United States, the people of Michigan. She’s committed to you,” Johnson said. “She’s going to be a president for everybody. And one thing she’s going to do is finally unite us, bring us together, that other party is trying to tear us down.”
But the five-time NBA Finals champion took time to directly address Black men, a demographic whose support for Democrats has softened.
“There’s a lot of Black men in here. I don’t mean to not talk to other people, but this is important,” Johnson said. “Our Black men, we’ve got to get them out to vote, that’s number one.”
“Kamala’s opponent promised a lot of things last time to the Black community that he did not deliver on,” Johnson added. “And we gotta make sure Black men understand that. So, that’s why I’m here: To make sure I help Black men understand, first, get out and vote, and then vote for the next president of the United States Kamala Harris.”
Johnson also called on America to take inspiration from Mexico, which swore in its first woman president on Tuesday.
Earlier Friday, ahead of the Flint rally, Harris stopped by a firehouse in Redford Township, right outside Detroit, where she labeled Trump “an existential threat” to labor.
“Donald Trump’s track record is a disaster for working people, and he’s trying to gaslight people all over our country, but we know the facts and we know the truth: He is an existential threat to America’s labor movement,” Harris claimed.
In a short statement Thursday, Edward Kelly, the president of the firefighters’ union, announced his board voted not to endorse a candidate for president — following the Teamsters’ lead.
“This decision, which we took very seriously, is the best way to preserve and strengthen our unity,” Kelly said.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence, who did not endorse or support President-elect Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle, said Friday that he opposes Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because of Kennedy’s support for abortion access.
Pence said in a statement that choosing Kennedy is a departure from what he framed as the Trump-Pence administration’s general opposition to abortion access.
“I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades,” Pence wrote.
Pence claimed that Kennedy, for most of his career, has supported positions such as “abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy” and restoring Roe v. Wade.
“The pro-life movement has always looked to the Republican party to stand for life, to affirm an unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed,” Pence wrote.
“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” he added.
During his 2024 run, Trump said laws surrounding abortion access should be left up to individual states to decide.
Kennedy’s own position on abortion had lacked some clarity throughout his independent presidential campaign, which he suspended in August as he endorsed Trump.
He said at one point that he opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade, and in one interview he argued that “we have to leave it to the women rather than the state.”
In 2023, he told NBC News he would sign a federal ban on the procedure after three months, but his campaign later walked back the comments, saying he “misunderstood” the question. In May 2024, he said he advocates a woman’s right to choose an abortion at any point during her pregnancy.
He later wrote in a post on X, after some blowback, that he “would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.” And in June, he wrote on social media, “Abortion has been a notoriously divisive issue in America, but actually I see an emerging consensus: that abortion should be legal up until a certain number of weeks, and restricted thereafter.”
Some groups that oppose abortion access have also criticized Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy.
In a statement to ABC News, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said her group has “concerns” about Kennedy leading HHS.
“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Dannenfelser wrote. “I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established.”
Groups that support abortion access have also criticized Trump’s selection of Kennedy.
Mini Timmaraju, CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, wrote in a statement Thursday, “Trump ran on a promise not to ban abortion nationwide, but his cabinet nominees are Project 2025 come to life. RFK Jr. is an unfit, unqualified extremist who cannot be trusted to protect the health, safety, and reproductive freedom of American families.”
ABC News reached out to Kennedy for comment.
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin, Ben Siegel, and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Friday kicks off new push to reach male voters in swing states, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign confirmed to ABC News.
As part of the push, the campaign is highlighting ABC’s Michael Strahan exclusive interview with Walz that aired on “Good Morning America” Friday morning.
Walz travels to Michigan, where he will deliver remarks on “protecting workers and investing in manufacturing, and then join a political engagement with Black male voters,” the campaign said.
Walz will do a round of local TV interviews in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that will be taped on Friday — focused on hunting and high school football.
Later in the day, Walz will return to Mankato West — the Minnesota high school where he taught and also coached football.
He will attend the school’s homecoming game and deliver a pep talk before the team takes on rival Mankato East.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Mankato West’s state championship win, according to the campaign.
The campaign will also release a video on Walz’s social media channels featuring what it says is never-before-aired footage from the state championship game and interviews with Tim and Gwen Walz’s former students and players.
Saturday marks the Pheasant Opener in Minnesota and a group of outdoors digital creators will join Walz for an early morning hunt in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.
