February 6, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate confirmed Pam Bondi to be the next U.S. attorney general. In response, All Voting is Local Executive Director Hannah Fried said the following:
Our nation’s top law enforcement is now someone who has refused to answer who won the 2020 presidential election, has used her platform to elevate dangerous conspiracies that fueled the January 6 attack, and attempts to erode the public’s confidence in our elections. Attorney General Pam Bondi has a rich track record of election denial, spreading disinformation, and pushing to undermine legitimate votes. How can voters trust her ability to ensure our elections are free, fair, and accessible to all Americans?
This isn’t about policy differences; it’s about power. Efforts to spread lies about and create chaos around our elections are nothing less than a power grab — a way to silence voters and take decision-making away from the people. We are seeing this in North Carolina, where the state supreme court race remains contested, despite two recounts. The losing candidate is still fighting to disqualify 60,000 voters – many from military and overseas Americans – on a debunked legal theory. North Carolina voters lawfully cast those votes. And certification is mandatory – end of story. The message this continued delay sends to North Carolinians, and indeed the rest of the country, is that the rules do not apply to everyone, and losing candidates can have free reign to change election laws to override unfavorable results.
Next week, our AVL Action Wisconsin team will once again join former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was on duty during the January 6, 2021 attack, to oppose the Trump Administration’s recent pardoning of the violent offenders who stormed the Capitol and assaulted law enforcement officers. Excusing the egregious attempt by these insurrectionists to silence millions of voters nationwide and to overturn the results of a free and fair election through violence and intimidation makes clear what this administration and its allies have in mind for our election systems and our justice system.
With Pam Bondi’s confirmation this week, we must recognize that the same forces behind the “Big Lie” of 2020 and the events of January 6 are still at work today. They’ve moved from the streets to our courts, legislative halls, and the top seats of our federal government. We won’t allow them to dismantle our democracy one institution at a time.