Axelrod: Bondi will be responsive to Trump first, not duties of Constitution

Veteran Democratic strategist David Axelrod criticized President-elect Trump’s new pick for attorney general, arguing Pam Bondi will be loyal to Trump first, not the duties of the Constitution. 

“So, he gets in her what he wants, which is — he wants someone who will be responsive to him first, not the duties of the attorney general or the Constitution,” Axelrod said Thursday evening in an interview on CNN.

“He wants to have political control over the Justice Department, and she, to Scott‘s point, I think she‘s fully willing, able and capable of doing that, of putting a political functionary … who he trusts in that office.”

His comments come less than a day after Trump said he would name Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, to lead the Justice Department (DOJ).

“Now, whether the rest of the country feels comfortable about that, whether the senators do. We‘ll see,” Axelrod said. “It is a very … I think it‘s a very daunting proposition for those who care about the integrity of the Justice Department.”

Trump initially announced former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) would be his attorney general pick, but he withdrew Thursday after a week of headlines about his qualifications, years-long sexual misconduct scandals and likelihood of passing Senate confirmation.

Axelrod, who served as a senior advisor to former President Obama, said it was a “good move” to remove Gaetz from the nomination. 

“Clearly it was going to crash and burn, and he shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront,” calling it a “horrific choice.”

Bondi, who served as Florida’s top prosecutor from 2011-19, was also part of Trump’s defense team when the then-president was facing his first impeachment. 

“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,” Trump wrote in his announcement. “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!”

With Gaetz out of the way, eyes now shift to the president-elect’s other controversial choices: Pete Hegseth for Pentagon chief, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.