Ron Flipkowski - Today in Politics, Bulletin 208. 9/16/25

… AG Pam Bondi went on Katie Miller’s podcast and echoed the authoritarian comments about prosecuting Democrats that JD Vance and Katie’s husband Stephen made yesterday: "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."

… She then went on Fox and said DOJ is criminally investigating an Office Depot employee who didn’t want to print out posters of Kirk: “If you want to go and print posters with Charlie's picture for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that. We have right now our civil rights unit looking at that.”

… She then said companies are obligated to fire employees who are saying critical things about Kirk: "Employers, you have an obligation to get rid of people who are saying horrible things.”

… Even right-wingers and many Trump supporters strongly condemned her comments. Fox chief political analyst Brit Hume: “Someone needs to explain to Ms. Bondi that so-called ‘hate speech,’ repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amendment. She should know this.”

https://www.meidasplus.com/p/today-in-politics-bulletin-208-91625