‘Cornerstone of American Liberty!’ AG Pam Bondi Waxes Poetic About the First Amendment — Amid Trump’s Threats and Lawsuits Against Press
Attorney General Pam Bondi lauded the significance of maintaining the First Amendment of the Constitution — as President Donald Trump calls for networks to have their broadcast licenses revoked.
Bondi, on Tuesday, hosted a meeting to discuss the the Trump administration’s task force to fight “anti-Christian bias.” During this meeting, Bondi cited statistics about church vandalism to argue that Christians in America are being targeted for their beliefs.
She added:
Vandalism against churches was eight times higher in 2023 than it was in 2018; and at President Trump’s directive, we ended those abuses at the Department of Justice on day one. We dropped three ongoing cases against pro-lifers and redefined the FACE Act to ensure that abuse would not continue and that American tax dollars were not used to support the weaponization of our legal system to target Christians.
Just a few weeks ago, we convicted a man in Arizona for a plot to bomb Christian churches. The Department of Justice will protect religious liberty for Christians and for all Americans. We’ll work closely with everyone around this table and take a whole-of-government approach to solving this problem and ultimately protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.
The First Amendment isn’t just a line in the Constitution. It’s the cornerstone of our American liberty! It guarantees every citizen the right to speak freely, worship freely, and live according to their conscience without government interference. Protecting Christians from bias is not favoritism. It’s upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the constitutional promise.
While Bondi spoke about much of the First Amendment with great reverence, she did not mention freedom of the press. President Trump is currently going after a number of publications and networks for the way they’ve covered him in the past. He’s repeatedly called for the FCC to punish CBS for the way 60 Minutes edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris and has filed suit against the network for $20 billion. He has also threatened the licenses of all three major broadcast networks, plus CNN and MSNBC — citing various objections to the way those networks cover him. The Associated Press was barred from White House coverage for its refusal to call the international body of water south of the U.S. the “Gulf of America.” Although a court ruled against such action, the outlet continues to navigate the restrictions. And the Trump White House now handpicks which outlets are represented in the press pool — a move critics have strongly objected to because it allows the administration to potentially favor media entities which are more deferential over those which might challenge the president and his surrogates.
Watch above via C-SPAN
