Two stories dominated the news on Wednesday, Feb 11, both confirming the steady erosion of Trump’s power in his party and standing among the American people.
- Although Attorney General Pam Bondi’s contemptuous performance in a Congressional hearing is displacing most of the oxygen in the news cycle,
- the more significant political development is the House of Representatives’ rejection of Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian goods. The House GOP caucus defied Trump, despite his threats of “consequences” for any Republican who failed to support his illegal tariffs.
The defining characteristic of the Trump administration is that it “is weak, chaotic, and wildly unpopular and doing everything it can to make itself more so,” quoting Rebecca Solnit. The testimony of Pam Bondi before the House Oversight Committee was a prime example of the administration “doing everything it can to make itself more unpopular.” Bondi succeeded spectacularly in that effort. See Politico, House Democrats think Pam Bondi just helped them in the midterms. More on that in a moment.
The rebuke to Trump on tariffs was a sea change.
Trump’s campaign pledge to improve the economy was based on his absurd belief that charging consumers more for cheap foreign imports would make life more affordable for Americans. Trump thereafter ignored the Constitution and arrogated to himself the power to levy tariffs without congressional involvement or oversight. Those illegal tariffs are the subject of a pending appeal before the Supreme Court.
In the meantime, Democrats in Congress began proposing resolutions that would revoke Trump’s declaration of an emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Trump claims that the IEEPA grants him emergency authority to impose tariffs at will and at whim.
After months of effort, Democrats finally gained sufficient support from Republicans to pass a resolution revoking the emergency declaration. See HuffPost, House Votes To Slap Back Trump’s Tariffs On Canada In Rare Bipartisan Rebuke Of White House Agenda.
Importantly, the House voted to revoke the declaration of an emergency despite Trump’s threats to primary any Republican in the House or Senate who voted against the tariffs. See The Hill, Donald Trump threatens ‘consequences’ for Republicans who voted against tariffs on Canada.
Per The Hill,
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” the president wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening, shortly after six House Republicans voted to repeal the president’s tariffs on Canada.
For the resolution to take effect, it must pass in the Senate and be signed by Trump—both unlikely outcomes. But that is not what matters most. The two most important facts are these:
1. Trump has lost control of the House Republican caucus because,
2. Some Republicans fear voters more than they fear Trump!
The loss on the tariffs is stinging because it has been the centerpiece of Trump’s lies about the economy. Republicans in the House—and at home in GOP districts—do not believe those lies and want the tariffs to end.
Per Pew Research (02/04/26),
By a wide margin, Americans continue to say they disapprove of the Trump administration substantially increasing tariffs: 60% say this, including 39% who say they strongly disapprove. By contrast, 37% say they approve of the increased tariffs, and just 13% strongly approve.
Trump has lost control of the narrative. Most people no longer believe his lies. They know whether they are paying more for groceries and imported electronics. No amount of gaslighting by Trump can change the financial condition of a family struggling to make ends meet.
In the end, Trump can’t change the lived experience of hardworking Americans facing challenges that Trump has never experienced and cannot fathom. He rode a wave of populism despite his billionaire lifestyle and elitist “Epstein class” connections.
The attributes that should have made Trump unelectable in a party whose members are increasingly financially unstable, food insecure, and healthcare-deprived are finally catching up to him—and to the rest of the Republican Party. That is why six GOP members broke ranks on Wednesday to rebuke his tariffs.
Pam Bondi gave a performance for the ages. And not in a good way. She will be forever remembered as the US Attorney General who responded to a statement by a member of Congress, Jamie Raskin, asking her to answer the questions being put to her, “You don’t tell me anything, you washed-up, loser lawyer! You’re not even a lawyer.” See The Guardian, ‘You’re a washed-up loser lawyer’: Pam Bondi taunts Democrats over Epstein | Pam Bondi.
For the record, Rep. Jamie Raskin’s credentials are stellar:
· Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
· Professor of constitutional law at American University, Washington College of Law for over 25 years before entering Congress;
· Co-founder and director of the LL.M. Program on Law and Government; and
· Founder of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project
Bondi showed up to the House Oversight Committee hearing with a “burn book” that contained scripted insults for the Democrats on the committee. She followed the same disgraceful process in the Senate. The “performance” brought shame to the Department of Justice that it will never outlive. Rather, it must forever hold up Pam Bondi as an example of everything the DOJ must reject.
She was partisan when she was called to be impartial. She was vulgar when she was called to be the paragon of professionalism. She was callous when asked to show empathy for victims. She placed the president’s interests above all else, even though she represents the United States of America, not the president.
The media is filled with videos of disgusting displays of behavior by Bondi that would result in suspension from middle school and termination from employment by any private employer in America.
The most callous moments in her conduct occurred when she refused to turn to acknowledge the Epstein survivors sitting in the hearing room. A dramatic photo shows Bondi staring blankly ahead while victims stand to raise their hands to indicate that the Department of Justice has refused to interview them. The photo is featured in Politico; see also NBC News, Epstein survivors say they felt ‘degraded’ and a ‘lack of empathy’ from AG Pam Bondi.
The media is filled with headlines that claim that Bondi “lied” to Congress in her testimony. See CBS, Lawmaker accuses AG Pam Bondi of lying under oath during hearing on Epstein files, and HuffPo, Bondi Lies To Congress, Tells Them Maxwell Was Not Transferred To A ‘Lower Level Facility’.
Bondi’s misleading and false statements are too numerous to recount, but they matter—and should be pursued by state bar licensing authorities. In one simple exchange, Bondi made multiple misrepresentations that she must have known were false—because she participated in the events she described.
When Rep. Nadler asked her how many Epstein co-conspirators the DOJ had prosecuted, she responded by attacking Nadler as follows:
During impeachment, you said the president conspired and sought foreign interference in the 2016 election. Robert Mueller found no evidence. Robert Mueller found no evidence, none, of foreign interference in 2016.
First, Trump publicly invited Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. He said (about emails allegedly deleted from Hillary Clinton’s computer server), “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” See PBS (2/13/18), Trump asked Russia to find Clinton’s emails. On or around the same day, Russians targeted her accounts.
Second, Robert Mueller specifically found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Indeed, Mueller indicted 34 people who carried out that interference.
Mueller’s report stated at Volume I, page 1:
As set forth in detail in this report, the Special Counsel’s investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election principally through two operations. First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Moreover, Mueller indicted and obtained guilty verdicts or pleas from 34 people involved in Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. See Time Magazine, Mueller Investigation: All of the Guilty Pleas, Indictments.
Per Time, Mueller
convicted or [obtained] guilty pleas from 34 people and three companies, including top advisers to President Trump, Russian spies and hackers with ties to the Kremlin. The charges, which Mueller referenced during his opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee on July 24, range from interfering with the 2016 election and hacking emails to lying to investigators and tampering with witnesses.
Now, let’s compare the actual facts about what Mueller concluded about foreign interference and Bondi’s statement, which was “Robert Mueller found no evidence, none, of foreign interference in 2016.”
Bondi’s statement is false in both a material and an absolute sense. It is the opposite of the truth, not merely false in certain details. And she knows better because she represented Trump in his first impeachment trial (which related to his attempt to blackmail Ukraine in connection with the 2020 campaign, not the Russian interference in 2016).
Making a material, knowingly false statement to Congress is a felony. See 18 U.S. Code § 1621 – Perjury. Perjury occurs when a witness takes an oath to tell the truth and “willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true.” A person who commits perjury “shall” be fined or imprisoned for not more than five years.
There are many additional examples, but one instance of the Attorney General is one too many. She should resign. Failing that, she should be subject to disciplinary proceedings by the relevant state bar. Her conduct is so egregious that the only appropriate remedy is disbarment.
The fact that Bondi felt free to lie to Congress creates a problem of “tone at the top.” If the top lawyer in the DOJ lies to Congress with impunity, what message does that send to DOJ lawyers across the nation? Answer: It frees them to do the same. And that is becoming a pandemic within the Bondi DOJ. See Jamie Conrad, Lawfare, Senior Government Lawyers Are Shirking Ethics Rules With Impunity.
Sadly, state bar associations have largely shirked their obligation to enforce discipline against Trump administration lawyers who violate applicable ethical cannons and criminal statutes.
As Jamie Conrad writes,
But the current administration and its allies have been aggressively pushing against established norms in legal ethics as in other fields—and state supreme courts have largely been acquiescing. The net result is that federal government lawyers are becoming insulated from investigation and discipline regarding their compliance with rules of professional conduct. As a result, they are increasingly free to ignore those rules.
Pam Bondi just lied to Congress. What is the State Bar of Florida going to do about that fact?
At some point, the wheels of justice will turn, and Pam Bondi will face accountability. Trump may issue her a preemptive pardon, but she could be subject to discipline for violating the state bar’s rules of conduct that grant her the right to practice law. See Florida Bar Rule Rule 4-3.3 Candor toward the tribunal. (“A lawyer shall not knowingly . . . (1) make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact . . . .)
Unfortunately, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that complaints against Pam Bondi are beyond the state bar’s jurisdiction. See State Supreme Court rejects attempt to force Florida Bar to investigate Bondi • Florida Phoenix. There is no logical support for that position; indeed, it removes the primary mechanism for enforcing ethical conduct. But that rule could change with a shift in Florida’s political climate. Do not give up on the quest to seek accountability for Bondi—and all DOJ lawyers who are flouting ethical and statutory requirements.
As I said, Bondi’s disgraceful performance was one for the ages. She shall forever be the textbook example of how a lawyer should not conduct themselves in any proceeding, much less a congressional hearing.
