The U.S. attorney general’s vow to crack down on “hate speech” after Charlie Kirk’s assassination was so clearly unlawful that even conservatives called her out.
This was well before any information about the identity or motives of the suspected killer was publicly available. But even if the assassin had gone on television wearing a T-shirt that read, “I’m the radical left!” the attribution of widespread collective responsibility for an individual act of violence is rather obviously illegal and incendiary.
. Then again, this was Donald Trump talking. He is incapable of editing himself in moments of great emotion, and he often treats the law as simply an impediment to whatever he wants., the country’s top law-enforcement officer and someone who should be offering the president sound legal advice rather than inflaming his prejudices, has doubled down on the idea that the government should prosecute anyone who said mean things about Kirk or perhaps even the causes he cherished. On Monday, Bondi went on the latest hot MAGA communications channel,, and expressed a take on the First Amendment that would have earned her a failing grade in a first-year constitutional-law class: Attorney General Pam Bondi: "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...We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech."by Sean Hannity yesterday, and after expressing enthusiasm for employers firing anyone who disparaged Kirk in the wake of his death, she suggested her department’s civil-rights division was looking into prosecuting businesses that didn’t cooperate in mourning Kirk, as “Businesses cannot discriminate,” Bondi said, referring to the Office Depot incident. “If you wanna go in 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.” “I have Harmeet Dhillon right now in our civil rights unit looking at that immediately, that Office Depot had done that,” Bondi added. “We’re looking it up.” This threat immediately raised eyebrows since the right of private businesses to refuse to participate in commemorations they do not approve of has been a More generally, Bondi’s mangling of the First Amendment in order to reinforce her boss’s threats of vengeance attracted embarrassed and even angry rebukes from conservatives. Actually, she won’t. She won’t “target” or “go after” anyone for “hate speech,” because, legally, there is no such thing as “hate speech” in the United States, and because, as a government employee, she is bound by the First Amendment. And if she tries it anyway? The Supreme Court will side against her, 9-0.The day after her performative extension of Trump’s threats of a clampdown on “radical left” talk, Bondi defensively tried to walk it all back a bit, suggesting in an XUnfortunately for Bondi, she said what she said, and her walk back doesn’t address the problem that she is loosely and irresponsibly attributing incitement to violence to an unspecified “radical left” — which again, in MAGA-land, means the Democratic Party, not the random kooks who exist on the margins of discourse in every country. She needs to name names and cite examples very specifically or stop talking about it. No free country can have a chief prosecutor who publicly endorses witch hunts, which is exactly what she is doing instead of her actual job.Trump’s White House Ballroom: Plans, Cost, and Who’s Really PayingRobinson has been charged with aggravated murder and authorities will seek the death penalty. He allegedly confessed to his roommate via text.early and oftenHere’s everything we know about the massive renovation, including the timeline, artist renderings, and whether Trump is actually funding it himself.He is having a hard time getting anyone to donate to his library — or give him the profitable gigs usually associated with being an ex-president.The Trumps have always denied the claim, which comes from Epstein himself. They threatened to sue Hunter Biden over it, but have yet to do so.Before his Charlie Kirk screwup, the FBI director was portrayed by insiders as obsessed with looking good on social media.Two of Trump’s big priorities — mass deportation and bringing manufacturing to America — came into conflict in an embarrassing way.Democrats want an Obamacare subsidy deal. Republicans want to make no concessions. Trump wants vengeance. Things could really go wrong.A day after Governor Hochul endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor, President Trump said Washington “will be watching this situation very closely.”Our account of the three days following Kirk’s shocking murder and the manhunt that followed, including reaction, analysis, and commentary.Trump has blamed his opponents for Kirk’s assassination and vowed vengeance. But Utah’s Republican governor is calling for peace.*Sorry, there was a problem signing you up.
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