Florida’s Trump-loving attorney general, Pam Bondi, spent four minutes on Fox & Friends playing the conservative victim after being heckled at a movie and pretending that she believes in civility and decency.
Bondi, in case you missed it, was confronted and heckled as she left a screening of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” over the weekend. A video by one of the activists shows her being shouted down with questions about her efforts to destroy health insurance protections for people with pre-existing conditions and her support for the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Although the video (below) shows no such thing, Bondi claims she was physically threatened.
BONDI: Because I was talking normally to them, they didn’t know what to do. So then three huge guys came up and started, probably an inch from my face, screaming at me, every word in the book, cursing as loud as they could. So then a trooper, my trooper came up and my boyfriend and I got our tickets, we’re headed in and then they ran in and circled me. I could not get in the theater.
After Bondi made it into the theater, she said she thought the incident had been “defused” only to find that when she went to get popcorn, “They came up again, just every curse word in the book.” She also said the protesters used threatening language, goading her boyfriend about protecting her. “And they’re this far from my face. One spit on my head. Now, I can’t say that was intentional because he was yelling so loud. … They are inciting violence. It’s not just yelling at someone and cursing at someone in a public place. They were trying to create a fight.”
For the record, I do not condone any kind of threatening language or physical confrontation. But I see no reason that a public servant such as Bondi should not be heckled for her extremism and questionable ethics. Bondi never uttered a peep of objection to Trump's Trump’s inflammatory attacks on almost any American who displeases him nor the fact that he regularly suggests violence as well. Bondi, in fact, is on record as saying “I love” the “Lock her up” chants heard at Trump rallies during the campaign. Bondi also took an illegal donation from the Trump Foundation to her own campaign shortly before dropping a fraud investigation into Trump University. Trump later shelled out $25 million to settle other fraud cases related to Trump University.
Predictably, Bondi showed up on Fox & Friends this morning to posture as a conservative martyr. Host Ainsley Earhardt, who claims not to want to be seen as “in the tank” for Trump, never challenged Bondi on her apparent double standard. Nor were there any pesky questions about Bondi's suspicious pass to Trump U.
More importantly, Earhardt never spent a moment asking viewers to consider why the public might be so angry at Bondi. Instead, Earhardt used the incident to promote more divisiveness. “They’re preaching tolerance but then screaming intolerance in your face,” Earhardt said sympathetically. If Earhardt has ever complained about Trump's rhetoric let me know, because I don't recall ever seeing such a thing.
Earhardt chummily asked Bondi if she now will go out in public in sunglasses, a baseball cap and with her hair up so as not to be recognized.
“No, I’m not going to change my life,” Bondi said, after saying that she had previously tried that and it hadn’t worked. “That’s what they want … because they’re bullies and I’m not going to be bullied.”
But Bondi’s just fine with Trump bullying people. As far as I can tell, she has not objected to Trump’s not-so-thinly-veiled threat of violence against Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters today. Trump’s threat also falsely claimed that Waters “called for harm” to Trump supporters, which she did not do.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
Watch Bondi’s hypocrisy below, from the June 25, 2018 Fox & Friends. Underneath is the video taken by the protesters at the movie theater with Bondi.
Pam Bondi attempted to attend a screening of the Mister Rogers documentary a day after announcing her plan to end protections for health care consumers with pre-existing conditions. Here, via @timintampa, is what happened. pic.twitter.com/zMLrSayS8M
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 23, 2018
That said, it isn’t helpful. In fact, Trump loves it because actions like this stir up his base who feel persecuted by liberals. We need to save our outrage for the election and send our scumbag president a clear message.