U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday clarified her position on hate speech, asserting that the First Amendment "does not and will never protect violence."
"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 said in a post on X.
Bondi's post comes a day after she raised eyebrows on the right when she said the Department of Justice would "absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech." Bondi made the comments on the "Katie Miller Pod" on Monday.
Conservative outlets and pundits pounced.
"This is egregiously wrong. The First Amendment exists precisely to protect speech some people may find offensive," National Review editor Philip Klein said.
"She must think she is the Attorney General of the United Kingdom," conservative radio host Erick Erickson posted on X. "If Pam Bondi thinks hate speech is a thing that is both real and prosecutable, every preacher in America will be prosecuted for quoting scripture on marriage and two genders."
Bondi sharpened her position on Tuesday.
"You cannot call for someone's murder. You cannot swat a Member of Congress. You cannot dox a conservative family and think it will be brushed off as 'free speech.' These acts are punishable crimes, and every single threat will be met with the full force of the law," Bondi said in Tuesday's post.
Bondi had Charlie Kirk in mind when she made her initial comments on Monday, saying, "there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society" for hate speech.
However, it was Kirk himself who weighed in on the subject in a post last year.
"Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free," he wrote in May 2024.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.