CNN Host Jake Tapper Skewers Senator Backing ‘Willing to Lie’ AG Nominee

Jake Tapper and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL).
CNN

CNN anchor Jake Tapper seemed puzzled by Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s unconditional support for attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, questioning how the Republican could support someone who lied about the 2020 election results.

Tapper pressed Britt, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during Sunday’s State of the Union about her meeting with and support for Bondi. Britt said last month Bondi was committed to “blind justice, not blind partisan politics,” even though Bondi was part of Donald Trump’s 2020 legal team that claimed Pennsylvania’s election results were fraudulent.

“She spread baseless claims about widespread cheating by Democrats, about fake ballots,” Tapper said. “That is partisan politics, what she said in 2020. That is not justice.”

Britt tried to redirect the attack toward President Joe Biden’s administration, claiming Biden weaponized the Justice Department to go after American citizens. (Trump was charged by federal prosecutors and state prosecutors in different jurisdictions.)

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Britt also claimed she spoke to Bondi about keeping politics out of the department, a shift from Bondi’s past stint as Florida’s attorney general where she often allowed her professional and political lives to converge.

“People want these agencies, these departments to actually work for the American people,” Britt said. “Pam is committed to that. I think you will see that.”

Tapper responded, “Well, but why would you think somebody who’s willing to lie about the election results in Pennsylvania is going to restore integrity in the Justice Department, the way that you are calling for?”

Britt said she and Bondi spoke about her past election crusades. “I asked that question very directly,” Britt said. “With each and every nominee, the answers that I have been given with them has satisfied me that they’re going to move forward in that direction.”

She added, “So I’m sure she will have an opportunity to answer this in front of the American people, but the answer she has given me, most definitely, she is not only qualified, but she’s ready to move forward and move forward in a way that the American people deserve.”

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Britt, however, may share a worldview with Bondi. During her 2022 Senate campaign, Britt said she believed there was “fraud” in the 2020 election after Trump withdrew his support for Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama over his eagerness to move on from 2020. “I believe that there was fraud,” she told AL.com. “I think you have to have a forensic audit. You have to give people peace and clear confidence that their vote is going to matter the next time.”

There have been no verifiable claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, federal officials—including those in the first Trump administration—have said for years.