Bondi Prompts Broad Backlash After Saying She'll Target 'Hate Speech' [View all]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/us/politics/pam-bondi-hate-speech-charlie-kirk.html

Bondi Prompts Broad Backlash After Saying She’ll Target ‘Hate Speech’
The attorney general also said she could investigate businesses that refused to print Charlie Kirk vigil posters as the Trump administration pushes to punish anyone who celebrated his killing.
By Glenn Thrush and Alan Feuer
Sept. 16, 2025, 3:07 p.m. ET

Attorney General Pam Bondi provoked a broad backlash this week after announcing she would “absolutely target” protesters engaging in “hate speech” — and claiming she had authority to investigate businesses that refused to print memorial vigil posters for the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The comments by Ms. Bondi on Monday appeared to reflect a broader effort by the Trump administration to punish anyone who has celebrated Mr. Kirk’s killing or even people who denounced his killing but continued to criticize his political stances.

Ms. Bondi’s assertion that the Justice Department might seek charges against a business for refusing to serve customers for political reasons could run afoul of a Supreme Court decision that barred state authorities from punishing a Colorado baker for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

When Jonathan Karl of ABC News asked Mr. Trump about Ms. Bondi’s hate speech comments, he went after Mr. Karl.

“We’ll probably go after people like you,” Mr. Trump said, “because you treat me so unfairly — it’s hate.”

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