‘That is not the law’: Bondi promised to target ‘hate speech.’ She’s facing backlash from all corners.
In a social media post Tuesday morning, the attorney general said the Department of Justice will go after speech “that crossed the line into threats of violence.”
Pam Bondi speaks.
Attorney General Pam Bondi faced significant pushback from both sides of the aisle this week for comments she made promising to target broadly defined “hate speech” after the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
By Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing
09/16/2025 12:44 PM EDT
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday appeared to walk back comments promising to target broadly defined “hate speech” following the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, after facing significant backlash from both conservative and liberal circles over her threat to curb free speech.
In a statement posted to X, the attorney general clarified remarks she made Monday suggesting that hate speech was distinct from free speech protected under the First Amendment.
“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. 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,” Bondi wrote, adding that “free speech protects ideas, debate, even dissent but it does NOT and will NEVER protect violence.”
President Donald Trump didn’t appear to take issue with Bondi’s comments.
Asked by reporters about the attorney general’s remarks Tuesday, Trump returned to a suggestion he has previously floated — that members of the media should be targeted for their coverage of his administration — which he claimed was “hate.”
“We’ll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart,” Trump said, responding to a question from ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
The president and other senior White House officials have vowed to “go after” liberal-leaning organizations in the wake of Kirk’s killing. In appearances on Kirk’s radio show Monday, Vice President JD Vance and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller promised to crack down on “radical left lunatics” and vowed to unleash the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security on unspecified liberal networks they claimed were stoking political violence.
Bondi’s statement, which adds the notable caveat of violent threats, comes after she faced blowback for her comments on free speech the day prior — as well as a vow she made to throw the weight of the Justice Department against people who engaged in what she described as “hate speech” against Kirk.
“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,” Bondi told Katie Miller, the former DOGE aide, on her podcast that was released Monday. “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
In separate comments made on Fox News on Monday evening, the attorney general threatened to prosecute Office Depot for allegedly refusing to print posters with photographs of Kirk for the slain influencer’s vigil.
“Businesses cannot discriminate. If you want to go and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that,” Bondi said, adding that the Justice Department’s civil rights division was “looking at” such a case with an Office Depot employee.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment beyond pointing to Bondi’s Tuesday morning social media post and remarks she made Monday evening in which she pledged to “always protect the First Amendment. … When you cross the line from First Amendment to a crime — we will prosecute you.”
Kirk’s killing, the latest in a string of political violence this summer, has further fueled partisan divides in the country and sparked a debate on the boundaries of free speech about the controversial commentator’s legacy.
MAGA-aligned influencers Laura Loomer and Chaya Raichik have put out calls encouraging social media users to expose people who have disparaged Kirk online, with Loomer on Monday celebrating that “so many people have been fired.”
Separately, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah announced Monday that she had been fired by the newspaper over social media comments she made after Kirk’s death, which she said the Post called “unacceptable.”
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But many conservative commentators drew a distinction between the public “name and shame” campaign and the attorney general’s threats to prosecute, saying that Bondi’s claims were a misinterpretation of the First Amendment, which does not distinguish between forms of speech.
“Our Attorney General is apparently a moron. ‘There’s free speech and then there is hate speech,’” conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X, quoting Bondi. “No ma’am. That is not the law.”
Other conservative voices argued that while free speech was legally protected under the First Amendment, people could still face “social consequences” for making certain statements.
“There should be social consequences for people who openly celebrate the murder of an innocent man,” conservative commentator Matt Walsh wrote on X on Monday. “But there obviously shouldn’t be any legal repercussions for ‘hate speech,’ which is not even a valid or coherent concept. There is no law against saying hateful things, and there shouldn’t be.”
Walsh intensified his criticism against the attorney general Tuesday, writing in a separate post: “Get rid of her. Today.”
This week’s free speech debacle isn’t the first time Bondi has been the target of ire from within MAGA circles. The embattled attorney general faced significant backlash from conservative voices this summer over the DOJ’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, with many calling for more transparency from the department.
Some Democrats — who have warned that the Trump administration will use Kirk’s assassination as a pretense to launch a crackdown on their political opponents — also sharply criticized Bondi’s comments to Miller.
“So now @JDVance your Administration is prosecuting hate speech even though you ran on standing for the First Amendment & lectured Europe about not censoring hate speech?” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Cali.) wrote on X.
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