Trump Backs Pam Bondi With His Own Rabid Free Speech Threat

“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,” she said, adding: “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything, and that’s across the aisle.”

But Bondi may have a hard time “targeting” anyone, as there is no legal definition for hate speech in the United States, and it is generally protected by the First Amendment—no matter how heinous.

It also seems clear that, despite her words, Bondi has her own narrow definition of hate speech—specifically, that it was only rhetoric about right-wing figures. For example, she seems entirely unbothered by her boss calling his political enemies “vermin,” promising to imprison his opponents, and joking about Nancy Pelosi and her husband being attacked or putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad.