Journalism Professor Jason Johnson joined MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Thursday’s episode of The Beat to react to President-elect Donald Trump nominating former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to head the Justice Department after former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from the process amid a series of sex scandals. Johnson fretted that Bondi will be “worse than” Gaetz because “she knows what she’s doing” and is therefore “dangerous and effective.”

Given that Bondi was also one of Trump’s lawyers during his first impeachment trial and he has also nominated his criminal defense lawyers for other top DOJ positions, Melber declared, “So, if this were the team and they have to go through vetting and confirmation, but if this were the team, this would be two of the most politically defensive lawyers of the personal capacity of an incoming president we've ever seen running DOJ at the same time.”

 

 

Johnson regrettably concurred, “Ari, I completely agree, and quite frankly, my thought is that after Gaetz dropped out it would be essentially from Trump's legal team. It would be like a Jay Sekulow or somebody like that. I assumed that’s where he would get these people from. Unlike William Barr, even going back to when we were all kids and, like, Janet Reno, right, occasionally attorney generals try to behave like they are not the personal lawyer of the president of the United States. That is completely out the window.”

He added that Bondi “is exactly what I was saying in the last segment that we should fear because she’s competent. We may not agree with her ideologically, but she actually knows how to do this job. So, if anyone on the Democratic side or anyone who cared about liberty or justice was thinking, ‘Well, maybe Matt Gaetz will screw this up and that will give us some time.’”

Johnson concluded by reiterating, “No, Pam Bondi knows what she is doing, she knows what she’s doing about immigration. Remember, Florida is one of those states that’s been very aggressive about migrants and deportation and moving people to different states and everything else like that. Florida has enacted all sorts of rules and laws to curtail students and what they can do on campuses and finding legal justifications for manipulating education money. She is a dangerous and effective pick, and that's frankly worse than what we would have got with Matt Gaetz even with the deplorable moral background that he has.”

Johnson’s comments are troublesome for two reasons. First, the journalism professor sounds like a liberal activist, which makes one wonder what kind of classes he is teaching. Second, the media can’t have it both ways: are Trump’s cabinet picks bad because they have no experience running large bureaucratic agencies or are they bad because they do and that makes them dangerously competent?

Here is a transcript for the November 21 show:

MSNBC The Beat With Ari Melber

11/21/2024

6:44 PM ET

ARI MELBER: So, if this were the team and they have to go through vetting and confirmation, but if this were the team, this would be two of the most politically defensive lawyers of the personal capacity of an incoming president we've ever seen running DOJ at the same time.

JASON JOHNSON: Ari, I completely agree, and quite frankly, my thought is that after Gaetz dropped out it would be essentially from Trump's legal team. It would be like a Jay Sekulow or somebody like that. I assumed that’s where he would get these people from. Unlike William Barr, even going back to when we were all kids and, like, Janet Reno, right, occasionally attorney generals try to behave like they are not the personal lawyer of the president of the United States. That is completely out the window. 

Pam Bondi is exactly what I was saying in the last segment that we should fear because she’s competent. We may not agree with her ideologically, but she actually knows how to do this job. So, if anyone on the Democratic side or anyone who cared about liberty or justice was thinking, “Well, maybe Matt Gaetz will screw this up and that will give us some time.”

No, Pam Bondi knows what she is doing, she knows what she’s doing about immigration. Remember, Florida is one of those states that’s been very aggressive about migrants and deportation and moving people to different states and everything else like that. Florida has enacted all sorts of rules and laws to curtail students and what they can do on campuses and finding legal justifications for manipulating education money. She is a dangerous and effective pick, and that's frankly worse than what we would have got with Matt Gaetz even with the deplorable moral background that he has.