Episode 6 - Attorney General Pam Bondi Reacts to the Death of Charlie Kirk | The Katie Miller Pod

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. And I think what Erica said is they had no idea what they unleashed by doing this. Around this country and around this world, how so many more conservatives, I think, who were quiet are going to come out and be so outspoken. They thought they could silence Charlie, and it was the opposite. His word will be heard far and wide now. I think that's such a change from the first term is that this cabinet really likes each other, supports each other, wants to work together to achieve the goals. We all say that. We genuinely love and care about each other. And when one of us is having a bad day or getting beat up in the news, you know who your friends are when something bad happens. And everyone just circles the wagons. We all call each other, we support each other. Hi, I'm Katie Miller. Welcome to the Katie Miller Podcast. We had a different episode we were going to air tonight, but given recent events, I felt it best to redo the episode for tonight and sit here with my dear friend, Attorney General Pam Bondi, to talk about our dear friend, Charlie Kirk. It has been a very tough week for many of us across our country and in the conservative movement about the man that Charlie is and was to so many people across our great nation. He changed hearts and minds. I felt like not only did I know him dear personally, but from watching his videos, you knew what he thought. You knew his mind, you knew his soul. He is a good man. He is a good father and he is a good husband. And there is no better man than Charlie Kirk. And I know I speak from the heart and speak from so many others, as it was so powerful to see so many across the world and across the political spectrum reach out and share their love of our dear friend, Charlie. And so tonight's episode of the Katie Miller Podcast, Attorney General Pam Bondi and I will talk about Charlie, his legacy and her role as Attorney General. And so with that, hi Pam. Hi, my dear friend. I wish this was a different situation. I think we all do. So what was your personal relationship with Charlie? What are your some memories with him? And you know, what's the last week in your life been like? Well, most recently I was with Charlie just not even a few weeks before he was assassinated and we were in Sergio's office and I got a giant hug from him. We had a great conversation and he's, you know, we talked on the phone a lot too. And Charlie was a great human being, but he was a great Christian. And in fact, at I think 1.30 AM, Sergio sent me the picture that's been going around of Charlie hugging Jesus as he's being welcomed into heaven. And I think that speaks volumes. We all know that's where Charlie is right now. Charlie's in heaven is, you know, is there any good reason why this happened? No, and you can't, intellectually you can't make sense of it, of why someone could do this. As attorney general, you're going to prosecutor mode instantly and, you know, talking to all the different agencies and figuring out ATF, FBI, all of them, marshals even who have all been doing such a phenomenal job on this case, but you just can't reconcile why, how this could happen. And, you know, we know Charlie's in heaven and you've got Erica and these two beautiful kids still on earth. When you found out that Charlie was murdered, where were you and what immediately went through your mind? I was on a plane coming back from an anti-vaping press conference that I'd done with Bobby Kennedy and Gates who works with me came over and he was almost shaking and he said, you have to see this. And he wouldn't tell me what it was because you just have to see this. And it was obviously like to the rest of the world, it was surreal. And I knew because we had people at the hospital with him immediately how bad it was, but you don't want to believe it. You want to believe in your praying, we're all praying that some miracle could have saved him. But I was also on a plane sitting directly across from Bobby Kennedy. And, you know, I said, Bobby, how old were you when you lost your dad? He said, I was 14. And Bobby was with him when he died. And I think he died the following day. And for any child at any age, any wife to go through that, it's horrific. It's just, it's horrific. When you think about Charlie's legacy, how do you think he has reshaped the conservative movement in our country? I don't think Turning Point had its name for any other reason than now. And I think what Erica said, I think more than ever, these young people are, we know he shaped our country, like no one, no one of his generation. But now I think people are going to be more vocal, not scared, come out, talk about their faith. You know, Charlie was great at talking politics and different issues, but we all knew he was such a man of God and he was not scared to talk about his faith. It was the opposite. He loved talking about his love for God and for our country and for politics. And he could debate anyone, but in a really nice way. Charlie was a kind, good person. He was one of one. I think what- He was one of one. He was one of one. What impacts me the most about Charlie is that he was the one we all turned to when we needed something, right? When there was a tough day in the news cycle or you needed someone to have your back or retweet you or share something, Charlie was always there. He said, what time can I get there, right? When I launched this podcast and I texted him, I said, hey, can you help me spread the word? He said, what day are you available? It wasn't what day works best for me and my show. It was what day works best for you and I'll do it for you, whatever you need. And I think there are rare people in politics, in news, across our country, who says, when does it work for you, I'll help you, whatever you need. Yeah, my husband reminded me of a call I got from him, just, gosh, not even three weeks before he was assassinated. And he wasn't murdered, he was assassinated. And just what a sweet, incredible call it was. And he's always there for all of us. Don't take for granted your friends, I think. Don't, you know, don't. I do, we all do. And I told you, I said, I'm gonna be there for you every single day. I think sometimes we're so busy with life that we just take for granted the people in our life who need us, who care about us. And you're gonna be stuck with me every day now, Katie Miller. You're the best. Who in the conservative movement do you think can fill the role that Charlie left behind? Charlie was one of a kind, one of one, as you said. You know, there's no one like him. But after seeing Erica Kirk the other night, I think you rise to the occasion. And whether you wanna be a beautiful, strong, incredible mom, you rise to the occasion. And I think she knows what Charlie would have wanted. I know J.D. Vance, of course, is hosting his show, and Benny Johnson, and these incredible men who were so close to Charlie, who just loved Charlie like a brother. And I think there are a lot of people out there who are going to step up to the plate and rise to the occasion. And right when this happened, I texted Benny, and I said, be safe. Without compromising the investigation, you know, for people who are watching at home and scrolling their phones and are desperate for a bit of news to make themselves feel safer or know what's happening in the investigation, how can we at home know what something is a real piece of information versus something that is manufactured or put out by people just trying to do harm? Only listen to what you hear from law enforcement. I think Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino both gave interviews today, and then when our U.S. attorneys, when we're talking about it, state government, only law enforcement officials. There's a lot of evidence, a lot going on in this case. It's still very fluid, but we are confident that we have the monster behind bars who assassinated Charlie. Are we gonna go after more people? I see a lot on the internet that says we should go after the groups behind who create this ideology. As Attorney General, do you think we're gonna go after some of these larger groups? Well, we have to look at all of that. This has gotta stop. You know, we've gotta unite as a country. This violence has got to stop. I think Charlie was the last person any of us thought this would happen to, the last person. He was having a peaceful conversation on a college campus, and now he's not here anymore. It's still surreal to everyone. But yeah, we're gonna look at everything. We are looking at everything. The FBI's been doing an incredible investigation. ATF analyzed the bullets, the gun. The U.S. Marshals are peripherally involved in it. The local and state law enforcement, this is a team effort. This is everybody working together to make sure that that monster gets the most severe sentence possible. You mentioned Erika Kirk carrying on Charlie's legacy. Her video touched so many people. I know I cried watching her speak. What did it mean to you? I mean, I think we all sobbed when it happened, and you know, everyone from young girls to my mother were calling me and just as impacted by Erika's words. You've got this incredible, brilliant young mother whose husband was ripped away from her, and talk about strong, talk about a strong woman. She is remarkable, and that's really all I've heard about her speech. I think everyone agrees with the two of us that there's no one like Erika Kirk. You know, you rise to the occasion, I think, when something so horrific happens. You know, you don't know if you'll retreat or go forward, and she is charging forward like a lawyer, and I think it's gonna be pretty incredible for this country and for a lot of young women out there who are, if they weren't already, are going to be greatly influenced by Erika Kirk and her incredible views on life. I think for those of us who knew Charlie would know that exactly what Erika is doing is what Charlie would wanna have happen, right? He would not lean out. He would lean all the way in. He would make sure his assassination meant something. Yeah, absolutely, and that's his closest person in the world to Charlie, and I think she knows that, and that's why she's out there in the front and center, and she's gonna continue it. So are, I think, all the folks at Turning Point, and all of these kids and all of these college campuses. I was thinking it was just in the United States. I didn't realize that he had reached so many other countries until this happened. Like, the influence that he's had on the conservative movement is second to none. I've watched so many videos of him debating these college kids now over the weekend that I just, I'm like, I'm even more impressed now than I was a week ago. Yeah, same. It's truly remarkable what he was doing, and he was changing hearts and minds, and that's hard to do in this world, especially with kids. It's a lot of work to show up to a college campus, right? For so long, colleges allowed, when a conservative would go on campus, right, they'd go with all this police and security. These universities are complicit in allowing conservatives to be harassed on campus, and what happens when you allow a university to harass conservatives and don't expel or don't take an action is what happened last week. It is, and on a broader level, the anti-Semitism, what's been happening at college campuses around this country is disgusting, it's despicable, and we've been fighting that. We've been fighting these universities left and right, and we're not going to stop. 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. Do you see more law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people so we show them that some action is better than no action? We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything, and that's across the aisle. I mean, look what happened. Think about Josh Shapiro. What happened to Governor Shapiro? I talked to Josh multiple times, Democrat, Governor, Jewish. They firebombed his house while his wife and children were sleeping upstairs. It's a miracle nothing worse happened to, it's a miracle that nothing happened to Josh and he and his family are safe. They're traumatized, but that's what's happened in this world, and we are gonna fight every step of the way to show that you will face the most severe consequences if you come after someone and you target someone for their political views or for any reason at all. Do you think Charlie was assassinated because our country can't handle free speech or because one type of speech is seen as obscene by another political party? Well, in this case, it was clearly obscene by a political party, an opposing view, sure, but it doesn't matter. You can't have that hate speech in the world in which we live, and you knew Charlie better than anyone. He would want everyone to unite right now and I think what Erica said is they had no idea what they unleashed by doing this around this country and around this world, how so many more conservatives, I think, who were quiet are going to come out and be so outspoken. I've had my friends, a couple of my friends' kids even reach out to me who I didn't realize how conservative they were. They're in college, how much they cared about Charlie and they are going to be activists now. What's your message to those conservatives who are reaching out to you and all conservatives who are saying, you know, what do we do now, what's next? Well, I think we're all going to take the lead from turning point and what they do and what they continue to do, but you can't be scared. That's what they want. This is all about fear. They want everyone to live in fear and retreat and hide and we can't do it as conservatives, as Republicans, we can't, nor on any side. You have to have free speech, but you have to feel safe doing it too, but this cannot scare everyone from living their lives and saying what they believe and being very vocal. It's like when President Trump stood up after his assassination attempt in Butler and said, fight, fight, fight. That's right. You know, we saw it then, there's two assassination attempts on President Trump. This is what they were leading to, right? This is what they wanted was, they wanted to get after somebody who meant something to us to scare us to stop talking and to stop speaking out. They thought they could silence Charlie and it was the opposite. His word will be heard far and wide now. In a nod to Charlie, Governor Spencer Cox told the public to put your phones down. You know, I'm angrier than I've ever been. What would the nation's top cop tell everybody? Where should they channel their anger? I would say speaking the truth, talking to Turning Point, getting involved in Turning Point, all these young kids become activists. Go out there and if someone threatens you, if someone harasses you, report it to law enforcement right away and we're going to do everything we can to protect you and stop it. But we can't go into hiding. We can't retreat. We have to fight for this country. We have to fight for our faith. I mean, so many people out there are so religious, all different faiths. And I think it's more than okay now to come out and be so vocal about your faith as Charlie was. As a mom to three very young kids, it's a very scary world we live in. And I know as a mom now, I'm more nervous than ever to push my kids in a stroller. What do you say to other moms across the country who are putting their kids in school, who are driving their kids on an everyday routine to the same school? What do you say to those moms who look at their lives just a little bit differently? Are we broken as a country? Katie, right now, we're broken today. I mean, we're broken because of Charlie's death, but we will come back. We can come back and we're doing everything. I know you were out walking in DC a couple weeks ago before this happened. You probably wouldn't have done it now. You wouldn't have done it now, I don't think, with your family, but you've got to be vigilant. You've got to be careful. I mean, we're all brokenhearted because of what happened and you pray it stops, but we've got to unite this country against violence. And I have no tolerance. It's not free speech. When you come out and you say it's okay what happened to Charlie, we're firing people. We're seeing people online who are posting hate speech. They should be shut down. They should be stopped from doing this and they should know there are consequences for your actions. When you see a post online or when it's brought to your attention about those people who cheered Charlie's murder, who are encouraging other violence against other people in our society, what actions are you taking at the DOJ? Well, some of them worked. In the administration, a couple of them, no longer, of course, but I already texted with Harmeet Dhillon this morning about an Office Depot that refused to print posters of Charlie for a vigil. They can't do that in the world in which we live. Can't do it. And you're going to be held accountable and we're going to publicly shame you too. I saw Office Depot said they fired one of the three people who worked there. I think all three should have been terminated and we should investigate Office Depot. So what's your job been like as Attorney General? Loaded question. Drinking out of Niagara Falls. You know, a fire hose doesn't do it justice. You know, when you take a job like this, you think if I can help one person every day, I'm making a difference. And that's what I try to do. When I was state AG, it was combating drugs and the opioid epidemic. And you know, you still want to do that, but right now we're still in a defense mode. We're still trying to get all our U.S. attorneys confirmed and we're still fighting back. And people around us within these walls don't like us and don't want us here, don't want President Trump in office. But for the majority, we have great people. We're trying to get more great people in to prosecute cases and to really fulfill his agenda. My job is to make America safe again and that's what we're trying to do every single day. What's been the biggest difference between being a state attorney general, who some would argue doesn't have a ton of power, versus the U.S. attorney general, who I would argue has a lot of power? You know, I never say it's power. It's a tremendous amount of responsibility. And that's how I look at it every day. It's responsibility to do the right thing, to prosecute the bad guys wherever they are, to end the weaponization. And that's what we're trying to do. But every day you want to be proactive, Katie, but every day becomes reactive. Like the day Bobby Kennedy and I were out, we're talking about Chinese vapes and kids and in Chicago and trying to save kids. And then Charlie gets assassinated and it's just, it's surreal and all time stops. And so every day is different in this job, but we as a cabinet all get along so well and we all band together and support each other and look out for each other. And I'm just trying to do the right thing for President Trump, because that's why President Trump put us all in these jobs for a reason. He asked us each to take these jobs to help him fulfill his agenda. And that's exactly what we're gonna do every single day. Tell us how you were picked to be President Trump's Attorney General. Well, I never talk about conversations I have with him, but he called and asked me and I made it really clear that I didn't want this job. There were other people who I thought should have this job and really wanted to be Attorney General. But I, of course, agreed to do it. And I love President Trump, I love Melania, I love the family, and I love all my fellow cabinet members. And it's just every day, you just keep going and trying to fight as hard as you can for the country. I don't look up, you just look down and keep doing your job every single day. And you don't listen to the chatter, you can't. I think we'd all lose our minds if we did. How did you personally handle your confirmation hearings? I don't think they were as friendly as you thought they were gonna be on the beginning. I know you and I had talked about what you thought meeting senators would be like and going through that process. But how did you handle the criticisms day in and day out? Oh, that was, I fought back. And we have to, we can't just sit there and get yelled at and take it and prayed a lot. Was educated with the process. I know what I was doing. I was a prosecutor for 18 years. I was attorney general of Florida. And you just come in there and you fight and you just tell the truth and you fight back. And these people, they just, they want to divide our country. There's so much that we could unite on. Sure, we're gonna disagree on a lot, but who wants a drug problem in their country? Who wants a high homicide rate in their state? Who wants rapes being committed in their city? I would hope no one. And those are things that we should be able to work together on. And I just wish people would focus more on that. When people yell at you in public or when you see online criticism, how do you have the mental strength to take it and how do you handle it? You know, it's so easy to say, I don't care. It doesn't bother me, but we're humans. And it does. And sure, that'll make people be even uglier and more hateful online. And I just, I truly don't read it. I try not to read it. And yeah, when I get yelled at in a grocery store I'm like, okay, you checked the bingo card today. You hit them all, free Palestine, F Trump, F Ice. So, you know, they get into everything. And yeah, I'm like, all right, you checked the bingo card. You got them all, bingo today. So I try to look at it that way. And I was in a grocery store this weekend and I turned it into a game. I'm like, all right, I got out of here unscathed or somebody said something nice to me. But you know, that's the world in which we live and it stinks. It really does for all of us, because I would never, if I disagreed with you on every point out there I would never come up and yell at someone in public. Like people are just so hateful and they're so angry. And yeah, it hurts. And they mean to women too. People are mean to women. Terrible to women. I do think though, I'm getting yelled at less in restaurants than I did the first term. That's the best. The restaurants are good. We know where we can go and where we can't go. Maybe that's it. Maybe we've gotten better at dinner reservations this term. Well, we were like scratching that one off the list. Can't go there. What's your relationship like with President Trump when you come in to brief him on an issue? Or I know we don't talk about private conversations but if you want to give people a window into what it's like when you bring the president decision or you call him at night to brief him on an issue what's that like? Oh, well, I mean, he is the kindest, warmest, toughest smartest human being I know. None of us can keep up with him. We always joke. I don't know how he does it. I mean, none of us know when he sleeps. He's working all the time and he is just constant for him. And we just want to make him proud, make our country proud. And again, my agenda is to make America safe at his direction. And that's what we're going to do every single day. We're going to fight every single day. There aren't enough hours in the day for any of us. Do you think in the first term your predecessors didn't share that similar philosophy that you're there to make America safe because he was elected to do so? You know, I'm not going to talk about my predecessors really. I just, I'm looking forward. I'm keeping my head down. I'm doing the best I can do every single day. The volume out there is crazy. And so much of what so many of us do, you never hear about which is what keeps the world safe. You know, we have an entire national security division and you don't hear about that. You only hear about the polarizing things not the things that we're all trying to do. All of our great prosecutors, our US attorney our civil division, all of our attorneys are trying to really make a difference every day. But of course that doesn't get reported. What's your schedule like as attorney general? What time do you come in the office in the morning? What's the day look like? Well, I'm laughing because I just started trying to work out again because I've totally lost that. I felt like I was in the greatest shape I was in in my life before I took this job. And now that's gone. So started working out again and just started. So I'll report back to you in a week but trying to work out in the mornings and then come in here. And it's constant though, even it's Saturday, it's Sunday. And now that we've done this Take Back DC program the highlight of my week is going out there. I was out there Friday night with everyone going out and seeing everyone before they go out. I love our Metro PD, our transit authority, our park police our national guard from all over the country, they're here. DEA, ATF, FBI, US marshals. And it's really fun to see everybody out there working together and to talk to them. And cause I'm a prosecutor at heart, that's what I want to be. And I just love being out there with law enforcement. Do you think the president will extend the order by 30 days or has the city been incredibly cooperative with what we're trying to do here? Yeah, the city has been cooperative. They have been cooperative. So hopefully we won't need to do that. And of course we're going into Memphis. Stephen Miller is a huge, huge part of that. And we're gonna help Memphis. I've talked to the mayor in Memphis multiple times on the phone and he seems like just a great man. He's a good man. We want to go in there and work together with them and make Memphis safe and work hand in hand with them. Mayor Young does have a heart for his city and wants to make it a good place for all the residents. And that's what he ran on. Can the justice system keep up with the rise of political violence or is this just the most dangerous time in modern US? Well, certainly it's a dangerous time for everyone but of course we're going to keep up with it. We're going to fight every day. And if you commit any act of political violence, domestic terrorism, we are going to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. If you assault a law enforcement officer, we're coming after you. President Trump has zero tolerance for that. We all do. So we're coming after you. And yeah, that's a rise in cases. I think the last four years people weren't prosecuting. People weren't, they were working remotely. They weren't even working in their offices. So yeah, it's tough now, but yes, we're coming after you. If you commit a crime, especially that of violence or a hate crime. You know, one of my first, gosh, was it my first month or two on the job, we saw, I was at the homicide scene of the two young Jewish people leaving the Jewish museum who were just gunned down. And no reason, no rhyme or reason for that and how that can happen to someone. But you just go into prosecutor mode and just do everything we can to keep the world safe and stop this hatred. From your perspective as Attorney General, how serious is the threat of domestic terrorism from radical groups like Antifa compared to just a few years ago? There's a tremendous amount of domestic terrorism. And also because as you well know, these foreign terrorist organizations were let into our country over the last four years and we have to get them out of our country. And that's what Kristi Noem and Homeland Security, ICE, Tom Homan, they've all been doing an incredible job of that and your husband of getting them out of our country. But yeah, there's domestic terrorists, there are foreign terrorists, they're here, but I'll tell you, FBI's intelligence unit, working with all of our intelligence agencies in this country, I've seen things I never thought we could do as a country to root out the evil and get them out of our country. You were Florida's first female Attorney General? Yeah. What other first do you, as a woman, do you see in your role here as Attorney General? Well, I'm not the first female Attorney General here. When I ran for office in Florida, I truly, when I signed up to run, I had no idea I was gonna be the first woman. I didn't even look at that. I ran because I was qualified. And so here, I hope it's just making a huge difference and protecting our kids from cyber crime and human trafficking. And there's so many proactive things we wanna do. And we've only been in office eight months and it feels like eight years sometimes, but you just keep going and going and hopefully every week we can do something that's more proactive. Why is it that you think more women haven't run for political office? Oh, I think that's easy. I've always heard this. If you ask a man if he's qualified, and I will find you, there's a stat out there on this. If you ask a man if he's qualified to run for office, like an overwhelming amount of men will say they are. Women say they're not. And I don't know why. I hope that's changing. Look at all the great, well, look at all the great women in the cabinet who President Trump has. But look at all the tough, you were with Katie Brett, these amazing women, Ashley Moody, in the US Senate now. We've got a lot of great women in the Senate and in the House and in government. And I think we're gonna have even more, hopefully. I think women are seeing that, that you can do everything. You can raise a family, you can be a great mom, and you can make a difference for your country. Absolutely. I say all the time that in order to continue the MAGA movement, we have to talk to conservative women. We must inspire conservative women. Because if we aren't talking to them, we are not reshaping culture in our society. That's right. You have to talk a woman into running for office, as opposed to a man. And I'm stereotyping, but there have always been statistics out there about that. Well, it's what I say. There's conservative podcasts, right? But they mostly talk from a man's perspective about issues. And I always say, what's a female issue, right? A female issue is just how a woman talks about an issue. It is not just what we all look at online. It's like, oh, women's issue, check, check, check. It's every issue, it's just talked about a little bit differently from our perspective. And now we have you out there giving your incredible voice. We have, hopefully we'll have Erica Kirk out there speaking loud and clear throughout this country. How do you see conservative women reshaping the Republican Party? I think it's happening. I know it's happening. And all of this stuff in our schools, I think a lot of moms have come forward now, since they were putting this crazy ideology in our schools, these transgender books for elementary schools. And when the previous administration was letting that happen and letting elementary school kids read books about becoming transgender, and parents were being persecuted for going to a school board meeting and actually speaking up. And now I think more moms are seeing that, and they're mama bears, and they're coming out, and they're gonna run for office, and they're gonna become more vocal. At the preschool, my daughter attended for a brief moment in time. They read to the three-year-old class a book about the gay penguins at the zoo. And in the library at the school, they had a book about the trans crayon. My daughter didn't stay in that school much longer. How do you explain that to a little girl? They didn't ask the parents permission before reading those books to three-year-olds. And parents have the control over what their children are educated through in schools. And that wasn't happening, and it's happening now, because we're coming after them. You're the highest ranking law enforcement official in the country, and you're a female. How do you inspire other women to following your footsteps? I love, since I was, gosh, since I was a state prosecutor, I love mentoring young girls and women. I would always invite anyone I would see to come intern with me. Young women, you're always invited. I did that when I was state AG. I'm doing it now. And it's great when I see a young woman now who said she went to law school because of me. And that's incredible. And no matter what type of law she practices or what she does, I think that's pretty, that's fun. So you're not gonna know this story, but, and this is gonna play around, I don't think we've ever talked about this, but it just came up in my brain. I was in Florida Blue Key at the University of Florida. You spoke, I think, at our induction dinner, invocation, I don't know the word. That was a long time ago. But you spoke at the dinner, and I remember so vividly you speaking to my class. I remember thinking, wow, that's the state attorney general coming to speak to us at the University of Florida. Yeah, I don't, I remember speaking to Florida Blue Key there. Yeah, that's a long time ago, aw. Yeah, but I love, and I love. I like remember what you were wearing that day, which is such a wild memory, but like when you were inspired by somebody, right, you remember key facts about that day. Yeah. So can you tell me, you're in a group of other conservative women. What's the purpose of the group, and what are you guys doing? So this is funny. This is a small little group, and they all gave me permission to talk about it with you. Danica Patrick, my girlfriend, my new girlfriend, actually, she started it with a bunch of us. It's just a group of women who truly, we rely on each other, we share stories, we share when one of us gets beat up, we're all there to protect each other. It's Danica Patrick, it's Tulsi Gabbard, it's Laura Trump, it's Vani Harry, the amazing food babe, it's Michaela Fuller, Jessica Cross, Gabrielle Lyons, the doctor who's amazing, Megan McCain, and Cody Sanchez. Like, what an eclectic, fun group of women that is. And so we text a lot, we've only had one in-person meeting. We have Zoom calls, but we're gonna start doing it more and more, but we all support each other and have each other's backs. And Danica started it, and she's just a badass. She's just great. I think Erika Kirk's message the other night, right, talking about how we were all going to continue on Charlie's legacy, to me, it's groups like that where all these women can come beside Erika in her goal to make sure that Charlie's voice is heard louder and clearer more than ever before. That's right, and every man, but also every woman in this country, we need to be there to support Erika and what she's going to do, and hopefully, not to put pressure on her, but take turning point to a new turning point and maybe bring in more young women into this movement who aren't scared to speak out and aren't scared to run for office and are brave and bold and strong and intelligent and wanna do the right thing for our country. You know, the President's put a lot of women on this cabinet. I think it's a record number of women, maybe, on the cabinet, but we are all, we have a little text chain called, our group is Fierce Females, and we talk on the phone all the time, and we're all just so close, and we're planning visits together, and we just all, we get along great. I think that's such a change from the first term is that this cabinet really likes each other, supports each other, wants to work together to achieve the goals. We all say that. We genuinely love and care about each other, and when one of us is having a bad day or getting beat up in the news, you know who your friends are when something bad happens, and everyone just circles the wagons. We all call each other, we support each other. Not many people know, I think, that you're married. Yes, I am, yes. What has the role that your husband has played in this whole process of you being Attorney General? Priceless. I couldn't do it without him. He is my rock. I couldn't, I could not physically, mentally do this without John, without my husband. He's incredible, and you know, life throws you curveballs. You never know where you'll wind up or how. I've always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom with five kids and have a basketball team of my own, but you know, life doesn't work out that way, and I have three amazing stepdaughters, and it's just, it's great, and I have the most supportive husband in the world, and that's what's so fun, too. All the spouses on the cabinet, they've all become friends, and it's really funny. So a lot of the, a lot of them are female, and it's so cute, because it's Rachel Duffy. They're all like super sweet to my husband, but then all the men, Jeff, Kelly Loeffler's husband, they've all become good friends, and you know, John's trying to get together with Abe, Tulsi's husband, and it's really fun, but getting to know each other on that level, we're all in the trenches together, and we're all there to have President Trump's back and support this country. How do you try to live out concerted values like Charlie did? Just every day, I pray a lot. I mean, pray constantly. I've always been religious. I have an incredible pastor, Aaron Burke. We go to a great church. We're Bible-based when we're in, when we're home in Florida, but here, we watch it remotely online. Scotty Turner's been trying to find a church for all of us to go to here, but I think the entire cabinet, we're all, we're all, I think, incredibly religious, and I think prayer is the thing that gets us through everything and each day, and just pray for God to let the right thing happen and to give us the right words and to give us the motivation that we need to get through every day because you never know what's gonna happen each day. And with that, we'll turn to Cabinet Confidential. Uh-oh. Your answer can only be that of a fellow cabinet secretary. Okay, here we go. Who could best keep their cool during a debate with a liberal college student the way Charlie did? Everybody's pretty fiery. That's why I'm thinking about this one. I'm thinking about this one. Lee Zeldin. I think Lee. Lee is very calm. Russ Vogt is very calm. I'm trying to think. Doug Collins? Nah, Doug's pretty fiery. Maybe Lee. Lee feels like the right voice. He's very thoughtful and methodical in his responses. Who is the best role model for young people scared about politics today? Tulsi Gabbard. I think Tulsi has inspired a whole new generation of young people to come forward. The entire cabinet, of course, are inspirational, but I think Tulsi for this new generation, too. Who would you want giving a pep talk before a rally when emotions run high? Pete Hexeth. Or Marco. Or J.D., but J.D.'s not part of the cabinet, of course. Who is most- Or Brooke Rollins. Brooke is our biggest cheerleader. She is. Brooke's our social chairman. She is. She is the social chairman. That is true. Who is most likely to curse at a time like this? Oh, Howard Lutnick. Sorry, Howard. Howard, that's easy. Howard's our New Yorker. Howard's our tough, awesome New Yorker. Then we'll move on to our other fun game we've played on every single episode of the Katie Miller Podcast. Would you rather secure one historic conviction that changes precedent, or quietly stop at a thousand crimes behind the scenes? Oh, quietly a thousand behind the scenes. When I was a prosecutor, I tried a lot of high-profile homicides, but it was the ones that never made the news that impacted, I feel like, so many people. Would you rather be remembered for what you achieved in office, or for mentoring the next generation of women in law? Mentoring the next generation of women in law. Mentoring the next generation. That's what I've always tried to do, and I hope that's what I am remembered for. Would you rather have the trust of every citizen, or the fear of every criminal? I hope I have the fear of every criminal, so I would say you want citizens to trust you, I think. Would you rather cross-examine your best friend in court, or be cross-examined by your worst enemy? Oh, I'd love to be cross-examined by my worst enemy. I think that happens to me every time I go for a hearing in front of the Senator of the House, so that's fine. Would you rather argue a case in front of the Supreme Court with no prep, but comfortable shoes, or be fully prepped, but wearing six-inch heels? Oh, six-inch heels and fully prepped, hands down. That was an easy one. Yeah, for you, you're always in super high heels. I want to turn to one more serious topic before we conclude the interview, turning to crime in our country that moves beyond just Charlie Kirk. Something that predated his murder, but that was all very personal to us, which was the murder on a North Carolina train. What was your reaction when you first saw the video of Arena? Horrific. Just like the rest of the world saw it because it was captured on video. You know, this young woman and her mother moved to this country for a better life. She worked at a pizza place, was on her way home, still wearing her uniform. And, you know, as a prosecutor, I looked and she got on that train trying to not show her appearance. She just wanted to get on that train and get from her job home. And it just didn't happen that way. And it was horrific, and it should not have happened to her. And of course, he is in custody and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And we were able to keep the case because it was murder on mass transit. What efforts are you taking at DOJ to make sure there aren't more victims like Arena nationwide? You know, it's just increasing police presence. Like what we're doing in D.C. right now has been an incredible partnership. Crime has dramatically, dramatically dropped. We have taken so many illegal guns off the streets, taken illegal aliens off the streets, which we will continue to do. And now we're going into Memphis and, you know, we're coming to a city near you soon. And President Trump is committed to making every city in this country safe and expanding police presence. And, you know, I've been really clear with all of our U.S. attorneys and federal prosecutors throughout this country. If you attack, assault a federal law enforcement officer, there are no offers. We're coming after you. If you commit a violent crime, there are no offers. We're coming after you. And that didn't used to be the case. We're fighting against cashless bail now in so many of these progressive liberal sanctuary cities. But we are fighting every step of the way to try to keep America safe because that's what Donald Trump wants. Are you planning to arrest more people and put more people in cuffs for crimes that we would have previously not gone after in this country? Every day. People were getting out on robberies and the Metro police right here in D.C. were telling me they would see someone, they would arrest them, and then they'd be out the next night. Then they'd be out the next night because there weren't consequences for your actions. And now there are consequences for your actions in this country, in D.C., and I think people are seeing that with all of our U.S. attorneys. And we have many great DAs, too, around this country and a lot of great governors and we're working hand-in-hand with them with all of our federal agencies. What crime trends are you seeing nationally that worry you the most right now? Drugs. Right now, of course, the human trafficking has always been so important to me. But right now, it's the influx of drugs, Katie, in this country, and especially as you've got young kids. But for parents, these kids don't know what they're taking, these flavored vapes. They're marketing them to children. We want to get on the front end of that. They're lacing them with high amounts of THC where kids are going to the emergency room with all this trash in their lungs. One of these flavored illegal vape pens has, it's like smoking 20 cigarettes in one vape pen. So it's a lot. It's crazy. It's illegal. We're fighting that. But also the synthetic drugs. That's the fentanyl in this country, the opioids we've been tackling. But the fentanyl's really gotten out of control coming in from other countries. Do you think the war on drugs is perpetrated by the same people that have been doing it for years and we've never gone after the underlying cartels that we're now going after? I absolutely do. And that's why they're terrorist organizations. TDA, MS-13, Sinaloa. They're coming into our, and many others, CJNG. They're coming into our country to poison our kids. It's a multi-billion dollar business for them. But yeah, they're killing our kids. And you're a narco-terrorist if you're doing that and you're doing it in our country. Look at China with the fentanyl. You sure don't see anyone overdosing from fentanyl there because they're sending all that trash into our country. No, it's, the work you're doing as Attorney General is so important to change the tide of allowing criminals to roam free and to get off where they previously would not have. And that, I think, is what's going to end up making the difference in getting our country back on track. I hope so. I say, you know, if we can save one child's life, like if one parent hears this and talks to their child, like, don't buy anything on the street because you don't know what's in it. You know, we're seeing these pill presses with fentanyl, with their Adderall or Xanax or Oxy or any of, Ecstasy or any of these drugs, these street drugs that kids do that think can't hurt them. But if they're laced with fentanyl, you could die instantly. And now it'll slowly move on to a lighter topic, which is, you look wonderful today. Beautiful. Thank you. Exhausted. What's it like constantly having to worry about your appearance, especially as a woman, in politics? And how do you get ready in the morning and ensure that you're camera ready? Because often, as you said, you don't know what happens in a day, right? You go from doing a press conference on vaping to finding out that someone very important to all of us was just assassinated. And so the lighter hearted way of me asking this is you don't know what you're gonna get in a day. And I think people are very critical of another woman's appearance, no matter what you step into for the day. And so what pressure does that put on you outside of just the pressures of this enormous job? It's a lot. And yeah, people beat you up, of course, online about the way you look, the way you dress. You're too fat. You're too skinny. You know, just people are mean. Women are mean to women and people are just mean out there. And that needs to stop. And we're all humans. And yeah, I try not to read it or see it, but if it comes across a Google alert, I'm like, really? Like, it's just so mean. And yeah, it impacts you. But just try my best to put one foot in front of the other and do what's right and stay focused. And usually I come to work with a giant makeup bag and, you know, fixing my hair in the bathroom right outside this door and trying to get ready in the morning after working late hours and just doing the right thing is what I try to focus on. If you could have any superpower? It's tough being a woman. It's tough. If you could have any superpower for a day, what would you choose? Oh, superpower. To get ready in five minutes, no. To, gosh, to have kids listen to me for one day, even. To have them listen to me when we're talking about all of these issues, maybe. You're turning 60 this year. I can't believe you said that out loud. So that's like, I'm- The next sentence. You should've let me finish the next sentence. I'm horrified, yes. Okay, ready for this? You're turning 60 this year, yet you look like you're in your 40s. Everyone needs to know how you do it. What's the skincare routine? I did tell the president this. I said, you've aged me two years in this job. It's a lot. I do. I have, oh my gosh. Yeah, that's crazy. So I loved 40. I didn't hate 50. I celebrated 50. But this one's hard, because this one is like, 60's old. And I know I don't feel 60. I think that's the problem. I think everyone would be hard to believe that you are 60, because you look beautiful. Gosh, no. But that's why I want to get in shape, too. I want to get back in shape. And try really hard. But no, I do eight products every morning. I think I do nine at night. I'll tell you, when I was in college, my mom taught me, never, no matter, if you've had a long night out, and you've been drinking in college, and you come home, always wash your face. No matter what, wash your face. And she got all this skincare. When I was in college, I don't know if you get this, University of Florida, she bought this really good skincare. And she was allergic to it. And she drove it up to me. So I've been using skincare since I was in my, gosh, teens, 20s. And now, of course, I've increased it tenfold. Do you try something new often? Or do you stick with the same thing? No, I stick to my routine. La Suite, Rhea, she's an incredible esthetician in New York, and I use all of Rhea's products. And she always says, she says it's 80% what you do, and 20% what she does. And then I have this incredible esthetician, Elja Beta, of course, in Tampa, who I go to whenever I'm home. I used to go every week. That was my big splurge. But now it's like a, whenever I can get there. But she's remarkable, too. And to conclude this interview, we've asked every single guest the same question. If you could host a dinner party with three people, dead or alive, who would be at the table, and what are you eating? Oh, wow. Charlie Kirk. And right now, since I'm sitting with you, and Sergio Gore, I think. Because Sergio, the last time I saw Charlie, a couple weeks ago, he was with Sergio, and they were so very close. And I just think, you know, there are always things you want to say to people, obviously. That's why call somebody, talk to somebody you haven't talked to in a while. But I think Charlie would be eating whatever he wanted to eat. I would want to sit there with Charlie and just know his vision for what he wanted to see. That's right. So we could all do it together. And you know he's looking down from heaven, and he's watching it. He's watching what Erica is about to do with Turning Point, and Benny Johnson, and JD, and all these incredible people who are gonna take the torch and run with it. We've asked that question of everybody as the last question on the podcast, and I just- And I didn't know that either. I just stumbled over it because it hits differently reading it after what happened to Charlie. It just, it's harder to read it this week than it was every other week. And I think it's a too, not that we take people for granted, but people you love, if it's during the day, and I'm thinking about one of my friends, just text them and say you're thinking about them. And I'm trying to get better at that. Don't take anyone or anything for granted, I think. And try to spread, I think, love and hope around this world. And it's, you know, do as I say, not as I do. It's easier said than done. But keep your friends close. And you know this. We've learned when we've taken these jobs, you make your circles closer. And you let new people, like the girls group I just talked about who I love so much, into your circle, and they've been remarkable. But you also learn who's your friend and who's not really fast. Really fast. And have a long memory. I think we all have long memories. But this episode and doing this today has not been the easiest experience of mine to date. But I know if there's anything I knew about Charlie Kirk is that he would want me here leaning in, speaking louder, speaking the truth. He would want you here talking about this and how we're going to change our country and make it a better place. Because what happened to Charlie will never happen again. Not on my watch. What happened and what Erica Kirk is going through with her two young babies, I literally cannot fathom. And my heart is with her every single moment of every single day. She is one of us. She is our family. And I'll make sure her kids know every single day the father that they have and the man who changed our nation. At a very young age, he did more than most people do in a lifetime. And with that, thank you for watching today's episode of the Katie Miller Podcast. Thank you, Pam Bondi, for joining us. Attorney General Pam Bondi. I'm Pam. Thank you, my friend. I love you. See you next week on the Katie Miller Podcast. Please don't forget to like, subscribe, follow. We're every Monday night at 6 p.m. Eastern. See you then.