Bondi faces criticism for saying DOJ will ‘target’ anyone who engages in ‘hate speech’

(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Pam Bondi faced bipartisan backlash Tuesday over her comments that the Justice Department “will absolutely target” anyone who targets others with “hate speech” in the wake of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Bondi made the comments in a podcast interview with Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

“There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society,” Bondi said.

“Do you see more law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people so we show them some action is better than no action?” Miller asked in response.

“We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech — and that’s across the aisle,” Bondi responded.

Bondi’s comments quickly gained traction across social media, with some users replying with a 2024 post from Charlie Kirk, in which he wrote: “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”

“Someone needs to explain to Ms. Bondi that so-called ‘hate speech,’ repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amendment. She should know this,” conservative commentator Brit Hume wrote on X.

Bondi issued a defiant statement from her X account on Tuesday morning in response to mounting backlash.

“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime,” Bondi wrote. “For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.”

Bondi listed out several criminal statutes the Justice Department has historically deployed to prosecute threats of violence.

“You cannot call for someone’s murder. You cannot swat a Member of Congress. You cannot dox a conservative family and think it will be brushed off as ‘free speech.’ These acts are punishable crimes, and every single threat will be met with the full force of the law,” Bondi wrote.

“Free speech protects ideas, debate, even dissent but it does NOT and will NEVER protect violence. It is clear this violent rhetoric is designed to silence others from voicing conservative ideals,” she posted.

In a separate interview on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday evening, Bondi also suggested she has directed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to “prosecute” businesses that refuse to print Kirk’s pictures for vigils. It is not clear what criminal statute would be relevant in that instance.

Bondi’s comments come as President Donald Trump and other senior White House officials have repeatedly said they would use the Justice Department in the wake of Kirk’s assassination to explicitly target left wing groups.

During Trump’s first administration, Justice Department officials repeatedly resisted attempts by Trump and the White House to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization — a move they described as “highly problematic” and which would likely run afoul of the First Amendment.

The First Amendment protects the rights of Americans who like spewing “hateful speech” and “assembling with others who share the same hateful views,” so “unless an organization engages solely in unprotected activity, such as committing crimes of violence, any designation of a (U.S.-based) organization as a terrorist organization … would likely run afoul of the First Amendment,” Mary McCord, the former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, told a House panel in January of 2020.

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