Pam Bondi just learned the hard way that conservatives won’t tolerate attacks on the First Amendment.
Even from their own Attorney General.
And Megyn Kelly torched Pam Bondi with two words that left conservatives cheering.
Bondi stepped in it big time with her hate speech comments
Attorney General Pam Bondi thought she was playing it safe when she appeared on Katie Miller’s podcast this week.
Miller is the wife of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, so Bondi probably figured she was in friendly territory.
But Miller asked her about cracking down on "hate speech" – and Bondi’s answer sent shockwaves through the conservative movement.
"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," Bondi declared.
"We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything, and that’s across the aisle."
The response from conservatives was swift and brutal.
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume slammed Bondi for apparently not knowing that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.
"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," Hume wrote on X.
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh called for Bondi to be fired outright.
Erick Erickson didn’t mince words either, writing "Our Attorney General is apparently a moron."
But it was Megyn Kelly who delivered the most devastating takedown of Bondi’s constitutional ignorance.
Kelly unloaded on both Bondi and her interviewer
Kelly didn’t just go after Bondi – she torched Katie Miller for even asking such a loaded question.
"What kind of a question is that? It was completely teed up in a way that sounds like a lefty," Kelly said on her show. "Are you going to crack down on hate speech? What the f***?"
"That’s not a question that a conservative would ask."
Kelly pointed out the obvious – Miller’s husband Stephen Miller actually understands constitutional law and has been behind Trump’s most successful policies.
"While her husband fully understands the law and has been behind the most critical policies of the Trump administration that have been very successful, she clearly doesn’t and she doesn’t understand the conservative movement or she would not have asked that question," Kelly explained.
But Kelly saved her harshest criticism for Bondi herself.
"Pam Bondi said one of the dumbest things you can say as an Attorney General," Kelly declared.
She hammered Bondi for not immediately shutting down the premise of the question.
"And then for Pam Bondi to not say, ‘Whoa, whoa, sister. We on the right do not crack down on hate speech. We don’t believe in that nonsense,’" Kelly added.
Kelly’s brutal assessment crystallized what every conservative was thinking – how does Trump’s Attorney General not understand the most basic principle of free speech?
Bondi tried damage control but made it worse
Faced with a conservative revolt, Bondi tried to walk back her comments.
She posted on X claiming she was only talking about threats of violence, not hate speech generally.
"Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment," Bondi wrote. "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."
But conservatives weren’t buying the cleanup attempt.
The damage was already done with her original comments about targeting people for "hate speech" generally.
Actor Rob Schneider summed up the conservative position perfectly: "If FREE SPEECH means anything it’s the freedom to say things that OTHER people may LOATHE! Outside of the incitement to violence, FREE SPEECH IS ALL SPEECH!"
Look, here’s what this really comes down to.
Bondi walked right into the Left’s trap by accepting their premise that there’s some category of speech called "hate speech" that the government can regulate.
That’s exactly the kind of thinking that got us speech codes on college campuses and social media censorship.
The First Amendment doesn’t have a hate speech exception – and every conservative should know that cold.
Kelly did conservatives a service by calling this out so forcefully.
The America First movement can’t afford to have an Attorney General who sounds like she learned constitutional law from a Berkeley professor.
When your own Attorney General starts talking like a Democrat about regulating speech, you know the swamp is deeper than anyone imagined.
Conservatives expect their leaders to defend the Constitution, not find creative ways around it.
Kelly’s two-word assessment – "dumbest things" – perfectly captured how every constitutional conservative felt watching Bondi step all over the First Amendment.
The real question now is whether Bondi learned her lesson or if conservatives need to keep the pressure on their supposedly conservative Attorney General.
¹ Germania Rodriguez Poleo, "Megyn Kelly lobs f-bomb at ‘dumb’ Pam Bondi after gaffe-prone AG hinted at First Amendment crackdown," Daily Mail, September 17, 2025.
