Trump’s AG scrambles to do 'damage control' after conservatives rage against free speech threat

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One to depart for Washington, at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, U.S., September 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

During a mid-September appearance on "The Katie Miller Podcast" — which is hosted by Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller's wife — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to take legal action against "hate speech." Bondi's comments followed the fatal shooting of MAGA activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in Utah.

Bondi told Katie 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.... We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech."

But Bondi's critics are calling out her threats as hypocritical, noting how aggressively MAGA Republicans have defended inflammatory rhetoric from their movement. And the U.S. attorney general, according to CNN's Aaron Blake, is now in "damage control" mode.

Matthew Yglesias, in a September 15 post on X, formerly Twitter, posted, "This wasn't true when leftists said it and it's still not true now that MAGA is saying it — free speech includes the right to say rude, hateful, disgusting and inappropriate stuff."

Bondi tried to clarify her comments in a September 16 tweet.

"Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment," Bondi tweeted. "It's a crime. For far too long, we've watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over. Under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), it is a federal crime to transmit 'any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.' Likewise, 18 U.S.C. § 876 and 18 U.S.C. § 115 make it a felony to threaten public officials, members of Congress, or their families."

Blake, in response, observed, "Bondi does damage control. Apparently the line is going to be that she didn't mean 'hate speech' broadly, but threats. But that's not what she said."

Bondi's comments, as The Dispatch's John McCormack noted, are drawing criticism from both the left and the right.

The Dispatch's John McCormack posted, "At a time of deep division, Pam Bondi unified Americans from across the political spectrum."

McCormack highlighted specific examples of conservatives attacking Bondi, including Eric Erickson, who posted, "Our Attorney General is apparently a moron."

McCormack pointed to comments by Matt Walsh, who wrote, "There should be social consequences for people who openly celebrate the murder of an innocent man. But there obviously shouldn't be any legal repercussion for 'hate speech,' which is not even a valid or coherent concept."

But McCormack also noted Yglesias' comments as well as a post by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), stressing that criticism of Bondi is coming from across the political spectrum.

Khanna posted, "So now @JD Vance your Administration is prosecuting hate speech even though you ran on standing for the First Amendment & lectured Europe about not censoring hate speech?"

Bo French, chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party in Texas, tweeted, "I think the problem is you adopted the framing of the left. There is no such thing as 'hate speech.' Obviously threats are different and should be punished."

Journalist Joshua Michael Mlinkek posted, "Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. The above sentence lacks depth. Something is missing here @PamBondi | @AGPamBondi. Any speech that leads to violence is a crime. Incitement to violence is against the law. Rewrite this post Pam."

Blogger Gurwinder highlighted a May 2, 2024 tweet by Kirk himself, who wrote, "Hate speech does not legally exist in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of is protected by the First Amendment."

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