Donald Trump had already spent months defending Jan. 6 rioters when he broke new ground in November 2023: Those who were prosecuted for participating in the assault on the U.S. Capitol, he said, deserved to be seen as “hostages.” It was a striking development, which received considerable coverage, especially as the Republican repeated his provocative choice of words in the months that followed.
It was against this backdrop that Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii asked Pam Bondi about Trump’s rhetoric during the Florida Republican’s confirmation hearing. As NBC News noted, the prospective attorney general nominee apparently had no idea what the senator was talking about.
Hirono asked Bondi if the felons who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “hostages” or “patriots” as Trump has described them. “I am not familiar with that statement,” Bondi said about Trump’s past statements. Hirono said she had just familiarized her with his statement and asked again if she agrees with it. “I’m not familiar with it, senator,” Bondi said.
At face value, the answer seemed literally unbelievable. After all, Bondi is hardly unfamiliar with politics at a national level, having served as the head of a Trump super PAC and even briefly moonlighting as a guest host of a Fox News program while she was serving as the Sunshine State’s chief law enforcement official.
But somehow, when her party’s presidential nominee spent a year referring to Jan. 6 criminals as “hostages,” she missed the coverage.








