{"id":431816,"date":"2025-09-17T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/431816\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:46:10","slug":"pam-bondi-faces-rightwing-backlash-for-saying-shell-target-hate-speech-after-kirk-killing-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/431816\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam Bondi faces rightwing backlash for saying she\u2019ll target \u2018hate speech\u2019 after Kirk killing | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

US attorney general Pam Bondi<\/a>\u2019s pledge that the Trump administration<\/a> will \u201cabsolutely target\u201d people who use \u201chate speech\u201d in the wake of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has prompted criticism of the idea from across the political spectrum, including from prominent conservatives.<\/p>\n

Bondi said<\/a> on a podcast hosted by Katie Miller, the wife of the rightwing White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller<\/a>, that there is \u201cfree speech and then there\u2019s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Legal experts and conservative pundits have condemned the comments because there is no \u201chate speech\u201d exception in the first amendment right to speech and as such, targeting people for their charged rhetoric would be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no unprotected category of speech in the constitution or in the case law called \u2018hate speech\u2019,\u201d said Heidi Kitrosser, a Northwestern University law professor. \u201cBy being so vague and by talking about speech that doesn\u2019t fit into any legal category, she is basically opening the door for taking action against anyone who engages in speech that the president or the Department of Justice or Stephen Miller doesn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk, the founder of the powerful rightwing youth activist group Turning Point and a close ally of Donald Trump, was killed<\/a> on 10 September at Utah Valley University during one of his signature events in which he debated students.<\/p>\n

The murder was part of a wave of political violence in the United States, including attempted assassinations<\/a> of the US president and the assassination of Melissa Hortman<\/a>, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband.<\/p>\n

While some people on both sides of the aisle have spoken about the need for respectful dialogue, Trump and others in his administration have continued to largely blame the violence on the left and warned of a \u201cvast domestic terror movement<\/a>\u201d prompting fears he plans a broad crackdown on his political opponents.<\/p>\n

JD Vance<\/a> guest-hosted<\/a> Kirk\u2019s podcast this week, during which the vice-president urged people to call the employers of people celebrating Kirk\u2019s murder and said that the administration would \u201cwork to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked about Bondi\u2019s comments on Tuesday, Trump told<\/a> an ABC News reporter: \u201cWe\u2019ll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It\u2019s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they\u2019ll come after ABC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bondi also threatened to prosecute<\/a> an Office Depot employee who reportedly refused to print flyers for a vigil for Kirk.<\/p>\n

But people on the right who normally strongly support Trump have condemned Bondi\u2019s comments and called for her ouster.<\/p>\n

Conservative pundit Matt Walsh<\/a>, who said after Kirk\u2019s death: \u201cWe are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell,\u201d posted on Twitter\/X<\/a> of Bondi: \u201cGet rid of her. Today. This is insane. Conservatives have fought for decades for the right to refuse service to anyone. We won that fight. Now Pam Bondi wants to roll it all back for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator, also wrote on X<\/a>: \u201cOur Attorney General is apparently a moron. \u2018There\u2019s free speech and then there is hate speech.\u2019 No ma\u2019am. That is not the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Savanah Hernandez, a commentator with Turning Point, described those words<\/a> from Bondi as \u201cmost destructive phrase that has ever been uttered \u2026 She needs to be removed as attorney general now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commentators also pointed to Kirk\u2019s own comments<\/a> from 2024 concerning the idea of hate speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cHate speech does not exist legally in America. There\u2019s ugly speech. There\u2019s gross speech. There\u2019s evil speech,\u201d Kirk wrote. \u201cAnd ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bondi\u2019s talk of targeting people who use \u201chate speech\u201d is not legal because the \u201cfirst amendment creates very, very strong protections from punishment for speech that\u2019s offensive or for speech with which people disagree. The bar for punishing speech based on content, and especially based on viewpoint, is extremely, extremely high,\u201d Northwestern\u2019s Kitrosser said.<\/p>\n

Following the backlash, Bondi, who already faced calls to resign for how she handled files related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, appeared to try to walk back her comments on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom of speech is sacred in our country, and we will never impede upon that right,\u201d Bondi said in a statement to Axios<\/a>. \u201cMy intention was to speak about threats of violence that individuals incite against others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kitrosser, however, said she remained \u201cvery concerned as to how broadly they are going to define what is an illegal threat and as to what other loopholes they may try to carve out from existing free speech case law\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI think that we all need to remain very vigilant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US attorney general Pam Bondi\u2019s pledge that the Trump administration will \u201cabsolutely target\u201d people who use \u201chate speech\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-431816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115221128010533111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}