Trump's DOJ pick bats down dumbassery (01-15-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] So that's what we are going through yet again today. Another round of confirmation hearings up on Capitol Hill for the incoming administration's cabinet members. We've got, we had Kristi Noem. She went this morning, started this morning at 9 a.m. for Homeland Security. Sean Duffy, Transportation Department. John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA. Marco Rubio.

[00:00:58] For the State Department, Secretary of State. Chris Wright for Secretary of Energy. And Russell Vogt. He's coming up at 1 for Office of Management and Budget. But what I was watching was the confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi. She would replace Merrick Garland as the Attorney General. And Pam Bondi is former Secretary of Energy.

[00:01:28] State prosecutor, former Florida Attorney General. She's actually going to be doing two appearances before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She was Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General. After his first choice, Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration.

[00:01:50] Bondi. This is according to the AP note. Yeah, the Associated Press. Bondi is a longtime fixture in Trump's orbit. The Attorney General will be one of the most closely watched cabinet members, given the concerns among Democrats that Trump will look to bend the Justice Department to his will like Joe Biden has. I'm just kidding. I added that last part because it's true.

[00:02:13] Like this is the hilarity of what occurred today in this Judiciary Committee. The constant focusing. On this idea that the Attorney General needs to be independent from the White House. The White House can't have anything to do with anything that's going on with the Attorney General. I believe it was Dick Durbin. Yeah, Dick Durbin.

[00:02:40] Who said, you know, the Attorney General isn't the president's wingman. That's a quote. He used the term wingman. And anybody who's been paying attention since 2008 should note the high irony or the irony, if you will, of using that term. Why? Glad you asked.

[00:03:08] Eric Holder, the former Attorney General. Well, uber-partisan who politicized the DOJ continues this day to engage in lawfare against Republican legislatures and such all around the country over the redistricting stuff. Eric Holder gave an interview back in 2013 while he was still AG. And he said, quote, I'm still the president's wingman.

[00:03:38] Right? So when you have an AG that says that, it made news. And Dick Durbin was up there at the time. Anybody who has been paying attention to this stuff since 2013, April 4th, to be precise, knows what that term applies to. That's Eric Holder, who called himself Obama's wingman.

[00:04:06] You know, thereby admitting that he does, in fact, operate as an extension of Barack Obama. He's got Barack's back on all of these legal issues and all of, you know, any kind of consulting on stuff. And somebody mentioned it during the Judiciary Committee today. I believe it was, it may have been Lindsey Graham.

[00:04:28] Who pointed out, because the Democrats were making this big deal about, you know, will you have more loyalty to the president than the Constitution? Right? This is there. Now they're very, very, very afraid that the DOJ could be weaponized against the sitting president's political opponents. Well, I never. Really? That could happen? How could that happen?

[00:04:58] Democrats are very, very worried about this. And Graham pointed out Bobby Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy was named attorney general by his brother, John F. Kennedy. President John Kennedy named Bobby Kennedy as attorney general. I'm sure he was qualified, but he was putting in place somebody he could trust.

[00:05:28] Somebody who was, dare I say it, loyal, maybe, to his brother. We have a bunch of audio. Because, yeah. Tom Tillis, I thought, gave some very good remarks. And to our great national embarrassment, Maisie Hirono is also on Judiciary. So she got around to questioning today as well. But who am I to complain?

[00:05:57] It makes for good show prep. Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for the George W. Bush White House. He said, the more Democrats ask about who won the 2020 election, the more they demonstrate they are focused on the past. On behalf of the MSNBC audience. It's one of the reasons they lost in 2024. But they still think everyone should be relentlessly focused on 2020, not 2025.

[00:06:27] Big mistake. Right. They, again, always think in these terms, right? Or always try to at least assess it. What are their incentives? What are the incentives of the Democrats in this hearing? I mentioned it yesterday. It's to get airtime. It's to get the viral clips. And while we will play the clips and mock them, appropriately so, not too much, but the appropriate level of mockery is required.

[00:06:56] But it's to get the clips on MSNBC. Because that's what they watch. Right? They want to see their faces grilling the nominee over really super important dishes on Blue Sky, which is where all the leftists ran. So their tweets could be censored. Do they call them tweets over at Blue Sky? I don't know. Do they call them blues? Skies?

[00:07:26] It is funny that it's called Blue Sky, though. Is it not? Not Red Note. That's different. That's commie. I got that in the stack of stuff, too. There's another migration. So there are migrations occurring in social media world. So you have the leftists after Trump won. They were like, I believe it. If Elon Musk is not going to censor conservatives, I'm going over to my cry closet, blue cry closet.

[00:07:52] And so they went over there where, like, it's funny because they're in the process of, like, banning each other into obsolescence. I'm sure it's a great business model, but we'll see how it works out. And then the TikTok stuff, TikTok set to close up shop rather than sell for billions of dollars because as a corporation based in commie China, who would want to make money when the whole point is to collect all the data? But they're set to shut down in a couple of days.

[00:08:20] And so now there's a migration of all of these people off of the TikTok going on to literally a communist Chinese app. Not TikTok. It's a different one. They've got another one over there. And so at this point, guys, why not just go to Instagram, right? Set yourself up on Instagram or YouTube or Twitter or Facebook or one of the American companies.

[00:08:47] Just set yourself up there and then just, like, mail your tax returns and all of your credit card information and birth date, Social Security. Just give all of that stuff to the communist Chinese party. Right? Just make it separate. You don't have to learn Mandarin, people. Which they are having to do because the app was never built for an international audience. So they're going on to a communist censored platform.

[00:09:19] The Chinese must be looking at us saying, gosh, they really are so stupid over there. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain. And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter.

[00:09:48] Nestled within the breathtaking 14,000 acres of the Pisgah National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, it's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions.

[00:10:06] With hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi-Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch, choose from 13 cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with 11 king-sized bedrooms. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion. And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068.

[00:10:31] Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. So this is Pam Bondi. I believe this is North Carolina U.S. Senator Tom Tillis' line of questions. Thank you for being here. I think I told you when we met, thank you for the time we met. I was born in Florida, have a lot of friends and family, and follow Florida politics pretty closely. And you've had a very impressive career there, though I do also have to admit I'm a gator hater.

[00:11:00] So for the Florida alum, I'm University of Tennessee. But anyway, I actually, in some of these hearings, I created a bingo card to see what some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were going to hit. I want to go back to a few of them really quickly. One was about you being a lobbyist paid for and on the payroll of Qatar.

[00:11:23] Would you mind going back and repeating what you said in case people did not hear the involvement of your law firm and precisely what you were doing for the government of Qatar? Yes, Senator. I was very proud of that work. It was anti-human trafficking in advance of the World Cup. And human trafficking has been something that's been very important to me my entire career, especially when I was Attorney General of the state of Florida. You made it clear that you had a number of practitioners within the firm working on it.

[00:11:51] So this narrative that you were getting $115,000 a month from Qatar is correct or not? Not correct. Okay. Thank you. I want to talk a little bit about, well, first off, I want to go back. You should be happy that so many comments have been directed towards Cash Patel, whose confirmation I am supporting. In fact, I'm meeting with him today. Because that means they're out of stuff for you.

[00:12:17] So if it comes up again, you will once again know that you've got a great reputation and a great resume, and they are just trying to find things to put your integrity into question. You have answered the question repeatedly that you will be loyal to the Constitution and you will live up to the oath to the Constitution and to protecting the American people.

[00:12:45] And I think Mr. Patel, when he becomes here, he'll be able to get rid of the myth in the same way that you did as a lobbyist for Qatar. He'll be able to get rid of that list of the enemies, be able to deal with the enemies list. And the marketing department for your opposition is going to have to come up with new material because that stuff is getting old. Section 702. You heard Senator Lee talk about some concerns that he has with 702.

[00:13:10] I believe it's one of the most important things that you can do early into your confirmation. You will be confirmed, and hopefully with some Democrat support, that there have been dramatic reforms to 702. I've sat through an extensive presentation to try and make sure that the abuses never occur again and that you have a throat to choke if somebody abuses the protocol that's in place. I believe that we need to codify a lot of that.

[00:13:38] As a matter of fact, when I went through it, I felt like there were so many blinding flashes of the obvious. How could this not have already been a part of the approval matrix? So can you, after your confirmed commit that you or a designate will come back and provide for this committee an update on all of the protocols that have changed and recommended legislation for codifying so that when we do go to reauthorization, we'll have what we need to make sure that that program stays in place?

[00:14:06] Senator, I or a designee will review all of 702 before it terms, of course, in 2026 and come back and report to you. I believe that's the FISA stuff, by the way. You have a great perspective with your time in the state. All right, I'm going to stop it there. So I think they're talking there about, if I remember correctly, it was 702 is the FISA court stuff and how to get the warrants and all of that.

[00:14:31] She had a number of responses that were very awkward for Democrats that tried to, you heard Tillis mention it there, they tried to smear her with Kash Patel, the FBI director nominee that Trump has announced, trying to smear her with stuff that Patel said. Will you just say they were literally playing the disavow game with her defender, disavow, D or D defender, disavow. And she's like, I'm not aware.

[00:15:01] I don't know all of the he has said. Those are his comments like. And she's like, but I know him and he will follow the law. He was a public defender. He was a prosecutor. He has a lot of experience in the intelligence community. I have no doubt he will follow the Constitution.

[00:15:17] So but I do find it interesting how afraid Democrats are at least pretending to be that Republicans under the Trump administration might do to them what was done to the Republicans by them. I do find that to be telling. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season. But tell me if something like this happened at your house, your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing.

[00:15:47] And then somebody says, hey, dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless memories sit in a box for another year. All right. Create a video has been helping families in the Charlotte area preserve their history since 1997. Simply bring in your old camcorder tapes and create a video.

[00:16:15] We'll transfer them to a USB flash drive for just $14.95 per tape. You have a big collection. They've got a discount for you. And next year, instead of talking about those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch them together. Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at create a video conveniently located in Mint Hill right off I-485 and online at create a video dot com. All righty.

[00:16:42] So next up, we have the village idiot who actually I just learned. This woman graduated law school. Maisie Hirono from Hawaii. All right. Well, listen for yourself. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As part of my responsibility to ensure the fitness of all nominees, I ask the following two initial questions.

[00:17:06] First, since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature? No, Senator. Have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement relating to this kind of conduct? No, Senator. Ms. Bondi, I am focused on two things in my evaluation of President-elect Trump's nominees.

[00:17:32] The first is whether the nominee is qualified and experienced enough to do the job. The second is fitness to serve, which includes putting loyalty to the Constitution over loyalty to the president. Unfortunately, in my view, many of President-elect Trump's nominees are lacking in at least one of these two requirements. She's just reading this, by the way. The first is, as a prosecutor, is the kind of thing we would expect to see in a nominee for attorney general.

[00:18:01] But I do have questions and concerns about potential conflicts of interest, about whether you will keep DOJ's law enforcement responsibilities independent of the president's political whims, and about whether you will let facts and evidence guide your decisions. So let's start with the importance of facts, which you say is important.

[00:18:25] Ms. Bondi, we want an attorney general who bases decisions on facts. So I want to ask you... By the way, when she pauses like that, it's because she's trying to understand the sentence that she's about to read. She's literally got sheets of paper in front of her, and she's just reading off of the sheets.

[00:18:45] And so when she stumbles and she takes that pause, you can see she's kind of reading ahead because she's not understanding the way the sentence is formed. So you'll... Anyway, just a heads up. A factual question. Who won the 2020 presidential election? Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

[00:19:10] Ms. Bondi, you know that there is a difference between acknowledging it and, you know, I can say that Donald Trump won the 2024 election. I may not like it, but I can say it. You cannot say who won the 2020 presidential election. Thank you. By the way, Pam Bondi said earlier in the hearing when she was asked this exact question by a different Democrat, and she gave that exact same answer.

[00:19:38] And then she also noted that she was in Pennsylvania working for the Trump campaign and talked about the irregularities that she saw in Pennsylvania. And so there's... Is it reasonable for a Republican looking at the 2020 election to question, to doubt whether or not Joe Biden did eke out that victory?

[00:20:07] When you've got Pam Bondi, lawyer, former attorney general, former prosecutor, going through the election system in a particular state, noting irregularities for her to then question, I'm not really sure about these results. And I think it was Tom Tillis who later on said, every election has irregularities. Every one of them.

[00:20:33] So anybody up on that dais who is pretending that... And this is what... Yeah, Tillis was the one who said it. If you're up here and you're pretending that every election is run perfectly and there aren't any irregularities, like, you need to go home. You need to go spend some time back home because there are irregularities. I have been saying this for years. The question is the scope, whether they affected particular outcomes, right?

[00:21:02] And is there evidence that you can use to prosecute? Okay, here's her own... It's disturbing that you can't give voice to that fact. Moving on to... So there she is again. She has to come up with her own words. And so she had difficulty there. So now she's back on script. From politics. Ms. Bondi, if you are confirmed as Attorney General, you will take an oath to the Constitution and not to any individual, including the President.

[00:21:30] To start, I'd like to know whether you agree with some of the statements President-elect Trump made during the election. Why? During the campaign. First, are the felons convicted of breaking into the Capitol on January 6th hostages or patriots? I'm quoting Trump. As President-elect Trump has said repeatedly, do you agree with his characterization of the felons that I referred to? I am not familiar with that statement, Senator.

[00:22:01] I just familiarized you with that statement. Do you agree with that statement? I'm not familiar with it, Senator. No answer. He has also said illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. He said that in December 2023. Do you agree with that statement? Senator, I am not familiar with that statement. But what I can tell you is I went to the border a few months ago. I went to Yuma, Arizona.

[00:22:29] And what I saw at that border was horrific, Senator. It was horrific. Ms. Bondi, is that... I went to a rape crisis center? That is not my question. I went to a rape crisis center. Well, I'm not familiar with the statement. But I went to a rape crisis center. I met with Border Patrol agents. I'm sure you've been to the border as well. Ms. Bondi, I want to get to my next question. I'm sure you've been to the border as well so you can answer that. Right?

[00:23:01] Show of hands. How many people think Maisie Hirono has made a border visit? Uh-huh. Yeah, no. Nobody. I'd be surprised if she has. What is the point of this? This is like... Asking the attorney general nominee about random poll quotes from Trump to find out if she agrees. Because... Like, how... Like, this isn't even good faith... Or, sorry, this isn't even bad faith questioning. Right?

[00:23:31] Bad faith questioning, I would expect to be constructed in a better way. This is just dumbassery. This is a bunch of staffers thinking that they're writing gotcha questions. You know, when did you stop beating your wife type questions? Trump said they were felons and patriots. Do you agree? Well, like, who are you talking about? Who was he talking about? Every single person? Like, so she just says, I'm not familiar with that statement.

[00:23:59] And this was a pattern that Democrats were engaged in. Poll quotes, do you agree? Poll quote, do you agree? And Bondi kept saying basically the same thing. I'm not familiar with the quote. And then in one exchange with Dick Durbin, she says something to the effect of, well, like, what's the full context of that? Because he was asking about the phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, Raffensperger. You know, find me the votes.

[00:24:28] And she's like, I have not listened to that whole phone call. And like, well, I just told you what it was. Yeah, but I don't trust you. That's what she... I mean, that's what they should say. That's what I wish some of these people would say. I don't trust you are giving me the full context of that quote. I suspect you're pulling a quote in order to find the most outrageous thing, to generate the outrage,

[00:24:50] and then get me to go on the record supporting some outrageous statement, when in fact, if you look at the full context, sort of like the good people on both sides thing, that you find out that the context illustrates something completely opposite of what you are trying to provoke. Right? That's my... That's my... That would be my preference. I would like to see some nominees say it like that. But what do I know? All right. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too.

[00:25:19] And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description, too.

[00:25:45] I started using Ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:26:12] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Pam Bondi, former Attorney General for the state of Florida. By the way, just two notes that are of very little value. She's pronouncing it fentanyl, and I would oppose her nomination just for that. I hate it's not fentanyl.

[00:26:41] DeSantis does it. Maybe it's a Florida thing, fentanyl. It's fentanyl. Anyway, Pam Bondi also, she calls it Mexico. Mexico. Mexico. Which may be also the reason why Trump says he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico so this way he doesn't have to hear Mexico, Mexico, Mexico. Mexico. But anyway, maybe I'm wrong on that too. I don't know.

[00:27:06] Anyway, she then gets questioned by Senator Richard Blumenthal, who spent his entire adult life lying about Vietnam service. But he, well, here, you just listen. Senator, first, I need to clarify something that you said, that I have to sit up here and say these things. No, I don't. I sit up here and speak the truth. I'm not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don't have to say anything.

[00:27:36] I will answer the questions to the best of my ability. And honestly. Let me ask you. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, and that's what he did say to her. I know you have to sit up there and say these things. She says, I don't have to be here at all. And that's, like, that's true. She doesn't have to answer a single thing that you ask of her. She's not getting your vote. Right? Blumenthal's not going to vote to confirm her. Maybe, I don't know, maybe he does.

[00:28:08] This was the line of questioning with Mike Lee. Speaking of unacceptable. Oh, hang on a second. I'm not going to have time for that. That's fine. I'll tell you what she said. They were talking about the weaponization of the DOJ. And Bondi said, going after parents for attending a school board meeting has got to stop. Has got to stop. And Shelly Whitehouse, when he's not attending his No Blacks Allowed country club up in Rhode Island,

[00:28:37] he's at these hearings and he asked, under what circumstances do you prosecute journalists? And she says, well, if they violated the law, right? If they have violated the law is when you would do that. And, by the way, she then turns around and says, and when giving examples of weaponization that Shelly is very concerned that Trump is going to do,

[00:29:03] she said, you know, we have a lot of great prosecutors in the Justice Department, but I'll give you, like, so, no, we're not talking about the good ones, but there are bad ones. And here's a bad one. Klein Smith, the guy that lied on the FISA warrant, right? That guy broke the law. And Shelly didn't have a response for that. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:29:32] So, if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.