Trump hit for hiring loyalists like Pam Bondi: Doesn’t every president do that?
It’s spat out like a dirty word.
Donald Trump – take a deep breath – is hiring loyalists.
The president-elect – can you imagine?? – is nominating people he knows will support him. He’s used plenty of curse words, but nothing said by the media is more disdainful than loyalists.
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Now stop and think: Doesn’t every president hire loyalists?
Didn’t Joe Biden surround himself with folks who had been with him for decades? Ron Klain, Steve Richetti and Tom Donilon created a protective bubble around the president. But few, if any, prognosticators dismissed them as loyalists.
Why? The press generally approved of Biden’s picks, including Tony Blinken; the non-communicative Lloyd Austin (who didn’t tell the boss about his cancer surgery), and the equally non-communicative Janet Yellen. The only person who stood out for great TV skills was Pete Buttigieg, the former presidential candidate and outgoing Transportation secretary.
It’s hardly a recent development. George Washington took a team-of-rivals approach, naming Thomas Jefferson secretary of state and Alexander Hamilton as treasury secretary. So did Abraham Lincoln, with Salmon Chase as treasury secretary and William Seward as secretary of war.
But if Trump picks people he expects to support him, the knee-jerk media reaction is that they’re dangerous to the country and will run roughshod over the rule of law.
Trump didn’t make much use of his Cabinet in his first term and I doubt he will this time, except for a handful of top positions. Besides, he runs the show. Any Cabinet member who strays off the reservation can get fired, "Apprentice"-style. Serving at the pleasure of the president and all that.
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For what it’s worth, Trump wound up with an ideologically balanced Cabinet. The first wave – from Marco Rubio as secretary of state to a spate of current and former members of Congress – is generally impressive.
But then there was the fiasco over Matt Gaetz, now charging hundreds of dollars for Cameo videos, and such controversial nominees as Pete Hegseth, RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. And also Dr. Oz. Not to mention animosity toward pro-union Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer as labor secretary.
It’s quite obvious that the president-elect likes people he’s seen on TV, and he watches a lot of Fox News.
But consider: Jen Psaki and Symone Sanders-Townsend were both CNN contributors when they joined the Biden campaign and then held top jobs in the White House. Now they’re hosting or co-hosting shows on MSNBC. Nobody bats an eye because they’re viewed as good guys joining the right team.
From Fox, Trump has picked Army combat veteran Hegseth; ex-Congressman Sean Duffy, a FOX Business co-host, and two frequent medical commentators.
What’s fascinating is the way many in the media have turned on Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and career prosecutor who possesses the experience Gaetz lacked.
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Sure, Bondi has said plenty of partisan things over the years, such as "prosecuting the prosecutors," then quickly adding, "the bad ones." She was part of Trump’s first impeachment legal team and then ran the legal arm of a pro-Trump PAC.
Bondi was passed over in the first Trump term because she accepted a $25,000 campaign donation from Trump’s foundation while her office was conducting a probe of Trump University (itself a mess).
In 2013, Bondi accepted a $25,000 campaign donation from Trump’s foundation at the same time her office was conducting a fraud investigation into Trump University.
"Her acceptance of the donation coincided with her decision not to bring fraud charges against Trump University," says MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade. No evidence of a quid pro quo emerged. And a Florida ethics panel cleared her of any wrongdoing. But that’s old news now.
"Bondi has shown a taste for vengeance herself — at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Bondi embraced chants of ‘lock her up,’" McQuade says. "Even joking about jailing a political opponent is an insult to the rule of law."
But wait – didn’t Barack Obama’s AG, Eric Holder, describe himself as the president’s "wingman"? There’s clearly a different standard for Democrats.
Rachel Maddow producer Steve Benen says Bondi "falsely accused then-special counsel Robert Mueller of leading a ‘corrupt’ investigation that was "worse than Watergate.’"
On the other hand, Dave Aronberg, now state’s attorney for Palm Beach County, lost his race to challenge Bondi as AG, but she hired him anyway as drug czar. "She’s someone who believes in the rule of law..I do not believe she will be Matt Gaetz 2.0. She is not going to burn it all down."
I suppose it comes down to a question of trust. The pro-Kamala media refuse to give many Trump nominees the benefit of the doubt. Bondi has criticized the weaponization of the DOJ. You might even call her a loyalist.
But she will be the new attorney general, and that will be the ultimate test.