Less than a day after suggesting she’d sic the Department of Justice on people for their unsavory takes on Charlie Kirk’s death, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she’d “never impede” upon Americans’ right to free speech.
Bondi faced near-instant backlash after saying her department was looking to prosecute people for “hate speech” following the intense and polarized public response to conservative activist Kirk’s murder.
Her apparent willingness to disregard the First Amendment left some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies up in arms.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Politico that no matter how “evil and bigoted and wrong” words may be, they cannot be criminalized, while Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the press it was un-American to “censor and silence disfavored viewpoints.”
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Some of the loudest voices in the far-right media ecosystem also weighed in.
Former Fox News darling Megyn Kelly said she was baffled Bondi would even think about cracking down on speech, let alone double down on her remarks in an early Tuesday X post and on a podcast released hours later.
Meanwhile, “The Daily Wire” personality Matt Walsh balked at the idea “hate speech” was even a “valid or coherent concept.”
By Tuesday evening, Bondi was scrambling to clarify her comments, telling Axios, “Freedom of speech is sacred in our country, and we will never impede upon that right. My intention was to speak about threats of violence that individuals incite against others.”
While right-wing critics were able to get Bondi to denounce her constitutionally-questionable DOJ directive, those same free-speech crusaders had zero problem personally targeting anyone who dared to disrespect Kirk’s memory.
Numerous people have lost their jobs for criticizing the pundit’s extreme politics posthumously. An army of conservative keyboard warriors also started compiling a large-scale doxxing directory of private citizens who celebrated or mocked Kirk’s death online.