Defending the indefensible is an unenviable task, but Trump administration officials from Pam Bondi to Tom Homan gave it a shot on Sunday.
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When the White House dispatches surrogates to the Sunday talk shows, it is understood that these operatives represent the president. And that’s certainly what happened this week, when officials ranging from Attorney General Pam Bondi and border czar Tom Homan to Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz gave their best impression of Donald Trump: They lied, obfuscated, spewed fact-free propaganda, sounded like authoritarians, and, of course, took Russia’s side.
Overall, the administration can consider itself lucky that Americans either don’t have a firm grasp on the issues, don’t understand how things like “the Constitution” or “the World” work, or simply don’t care.
Otherwise, they would have been appalled by what they heard.
Let’s start with Bondi, who made yet another appearance on Fox News to show Trump that she is a loyal subject.
On the right-wing propaganda network, she was given an opportunity to lie to the American people about the deportation/trade of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador and how the judicial system works.
Calling the judge who issued a temporary restraining order to hold the deportation flights (which the Trump administration ignored) “out of control,” she suggested that he is trying to “control our entire foreign policy.”
Which would be true if the United States’ “entire foreign policy” consisted of flying immigrants to El Salvador without presenting evidence of their wrongdoing.
Of course, she is putting a different spin on things.
“Get these people out of our country as fast as we can. They’re not immigrants. They’re illegal aliens who are committing the most violent crimes you can imagine on Americans,” she said.
That statement, however, is contradicted by the administration’s own admission that many of the deported Venezuelans have no criminal records.
This is called due process, and it is something an attorney general should care about.
Most importantly, there are a lot of options between “releasing suspected criminals onto the streets of our cities,” which is what Republicans assert Democrats want to do, and “sending them to a slave labor camp.”
For example, and we are just spit-balling here, they could be presented with evidence of their crimes, charged, and then convicted. That would prevent innocent, legal immigrants from being delivered to a gulag, which very well may have happened here in at least some cases.
This is called due process, and it is something an attorney general should care about.
Not Bondi, though.
What she does care about, however, is that Tesla owners are feeling positive about their purchasing decision.
Following a spate of protests at the company’s dealerships, as well as some cases of vandalism (aka “domestic terrorism” in MAGA parlance), it seems to be a high priority for the administration, which is being bankrolled by the company’s owner, Elon Musk, to assure Tesla customers that the full might of the government is on the case.
“We are going to fight to protect all of the Tesla owners throughout this country,” she said.
Over on ABC’s This Week, Homan, America’s favorite xenophobic curmudgeon, also had some thoughts on due process when asked whether the individuals he deported deserved any.
“Look, due process, where was Laken Riley’s due process?” he said, referring to the murder victim of a Venezuelan immigrant who has since been tried and convicted, which is exactly what due process is.
Of course, that’s the kind of non-answer that plays well in the right-wing echo chamber because it sounds good but doesn’t make any sense.
Essentially, Homan is saying that the rule of law should be disregarded when crimes are being committed.
While we are on the subject of crimes being committed, the administration is far more interested in Venezuelans who may have committed them than international leaders who definitely did.
Which brings us to Witkoff, who had some thoughts on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is being unfairly portrayed as a dictator, Trump’s envoy waxed philosophical.
“I think in my 68 years on this Earth, I’ve never ever seen a situation where there isn’t two sides to a story,” he said on Fox News. “It’s just never as black and white as people want to portray. So, there are grievances on both sides.”
Which is true. Ukraine doesn’t want to be invaded, have its civilians murdered, and see its children abducted while Russia wants Ukraine to stop putting up a fight.
Speaking of those abducted kids. While Republicans love talking about “keeping children safe” whenever they can make some nebulous accusations that imply Democrats are a pro-child trafficking party, they seem to be just as concerned about those abducted Ukrainian kids as they are about school shootings at home… which is not a lot.
Waltz, for example, did not have a good answer when asked on ABC why the State Department cut off funding to a program that tracks these children.
“I can’t speak to that specific one,” he said while noting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “reviewing” these programs. “But I can say that President Trump has spoken to both leaders about prisoner exchanges.”
Not to put too fine a point on that, but kidnapped children are not “prisoners,” they are kidnapped children.
Too bad that they are not Tesla owners… because maybe then the Trump administration might care about their plight.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
