Attorney General Pam Bondi’s remarks that the Justice Department “will absolutely target” anyone who targets others with “hate speech” following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk sparked bipartisan criticism on Tuesday.
In a podcast interview with Katie Miller, the spouse of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Bondi made the remarks.
“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 stated.
“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 replied.
“We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech — and that’s across the aisle,” Bondi replied.
Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said “left-wing radicals” killed Charlie Kirk
As soon as Bondi’s remarks became viral on social media, some individuals responded with a Charlie Kirk tweet from 2024 that read: “Hate speech is illegal in the United States. There is foul language. There is offensive language. Evil speech is present. And the First Amendment protects EVERYTHING. Preserve America’s freedom.
“Ms. Bondi has to be informed that the First Amendment protects so-called ‘hate speech,’ regardless of how disgusting it may be. Brit Hume, a conservative commentator, commented on X, “She should be aware of this.”
In response to growing criticism, Bondi released a furious message from her X account on Tuesday morning.
“The First Amendment does not protect hate speech that goes beyond threats of violence. “That’s illegal,” Bondi wrote. “We’ve seen the radical left normalize threats, demand assassinations, and encourage political violence for far too long. The days of that era are passed.
Bondi enumerated a number of criminal statutes that the Justice Department has used in the past to prosecute violent threats.
“You can’t demand that someone be killed. Congressmen cannot be swatted. It is impossible to dox a conservative family and expect it to be dismissed as “free speech.” These actions are felonies, and the full weight of the law will be applied to such threats,” Bondi stated.
“Free speech does not and will never defend violence, but it does protect ideas, debate, and even disagreement. It’s obvious that the purpose of this aggressive rhetoric is to keep people from expressing conservative views,” she said.
Bondi also implied that she had instructed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to “prosecute” companies that decline to print Kirk’s images for vigils in a different interview on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday night. What criminal legislation would apply in the situation is unclear.
Bondi’s remarks coincide with President Donald Trump and other top White House officials’ repeated declarations that, following Kirk’s murder, they will utilize the Justice Department to specifically pursue left-wing organizations.
Justice Department officials vehemently opposed Trump and the White House’s repeated attempts to label Antifa a domestic terrorist organization during his first term in office, calling the action “highly problematic” and certainly violating the First Amendment.
“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 2020. The First Amendment protects the rights of Americans who enjoy expressing “hateful speech” and “assembling with others who share the same hateful views.”
