Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general, engaged in a tense exchange with Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday that resulted in praise from conservatives on social media.

‘You have an incoming president who said, ‘I have the absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,’ and in fact, President-elect Trump considers the DOJ to be his law firm,’ the Hawaii senator said to Bondi on Wednesday. ‘I ask you this: If President-elect Trump asks, suggests or hints that you as attorney general should investigate one of his perceived political enemies, would you do so?’

‘Sen. Hirono, I wish you had met with me. Had you met with me, we could have discussed many things and gotten to –’ Bondi began to respond.

Hirono then interrupted by saying, ‘I am listening to you now, could you please respond to the question?’

‘You were the only one who refused to meet with me but what we would have discussed is that it is the job of the attorney general,’ Bondie said before being interrupted by Hirono again.

‘I’m very happy to listen to your responses under oath, Miss Bondi,’ Hirono said.

‘So I think it’s really important to us that the attorney general be independent of the White House, and you have a president-elect who considers the AG’s office his law firm. I would like to know whether if the president suggests, hints, asks, that you, as attorney general, should investigate one of his perceived enemies.’

Bondi responded, ‘I certainly have not heard the president say that. But what I will tell you is two-thirds of Americans have lost faith in the Department of Justice, and its statements like that, I believe, that make people continue to lose faith.’

Conservatives on social media praised Bondi for her handling of Hirono’s questions.

‘Pam Bondi CLAPS BACK,’ Abigail Jackson, communications director for GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, posted on X.

‘Pam Bondi isn’t playing with these far-left Senators,’ the Media Research Center posted on X.

‘Pam Bondi obliterates Sen. Mazie Hirono for refusing to meet with her,’ conservative commentator Paul Szypula posted on X. ‘This was spectacular.’

‘Common @PamBondi W,’ the Trump War Room posted on X.

‘Imagine thinking Maxie Hirono is qualified to be a U.S. Senator but Pam Bondi isn’t qualified to be U.S. Attorney General lol,’ conservative commentator and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines posted on X. 

Bondi is expected to be confirmed by the Senate, and some have speculated that she will earn some votes from Democrats. 

President Biden balked at a question posed by Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich on Wednesday about whether President-elect Trump deserves credit for the recent Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal.

The deal comes during Biden’s final days in office, less than a week before Trump’s second term starts on Jan. 20. A recent meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was reportedly an integral part of the deal, sources told Fox News Digital.

‘Who in the history books gets credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?’ Heinrich asked Biden at Wednesday afternoon’s White House news conference.

‘Is that a joke?’ the president responded.

When Heinrich denied that her question was in jest, Biden responded, ‘Oh. Thank you,’ and walked away.

Minutes earlier, Biden explained that the cease-fire would consist of two phases. The first phase, which will last around six weeks, ‘includes a full and complete cease-fire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded.’ 

‘And I’m proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release and phase one as well,’ the president said. ‘And the vice president and I cannot wait to welcome them home.’

Israel has also released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Biden said, and Palestinians ‘can also return to their neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza, and a surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin.’ The second phase of the cease-fire will begin after Israel negotiates ‘the necessary arrangements,’ which Biden said would mark ‘a permanent end of the war.’

‘There are a number of details to negotiate the move from phase one to phase two,’ he continued. ‘But the plan says if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the cease-fire will continue as long as the negotiations continue.’

Weeks ago, Trump warned that there would be ‘hell to pay’ if there were no significant developments with a hostage deal by the time he took office.

‘Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. 

‘Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,’ Trump added. 

Shortly after Biden announced the deal, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller acknowledged the role that Trump’s team played in the negotiations and thanked them.

‘I don’t know if it’s unprecedented to have envoys from an outgoing and an incoming administration sitting at the same table negotiating a cease-fire agreement of this kind,’ Miller said Wednesday. ‘But if it’s not unprecedented, it’s certainly unusual.’

‘And, we, of course, thank the Trump team for working with this on this cease-fire agreement. We think it’s important that they were at the table.’

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace, Greg Norman, Trey Yingst, Brooke Curto, Efrat Lachter and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

A new national poll indicates that President Biden’s approval ratings remain well underwater as the nation’s 46th president is only days from leaving office.

Just 36% of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing in the White House, according to the latest CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with 64% saying they disapprove. The approval rating matches the president’s previous low mark in the cable news network’s polling during Biden’s single term in office.

The poll was released on Wednesday, just hours before the president delivers his primetime farewell address to the nation, with just days left before Biden’s term ends and he is succeeded by President-elect Trump in the White House.

Biden’s approval rating stands at 43% — slightly higher but still in negative territory — in national polls by USA Today/Suffolk University and Marist College which, along with the CNN survey, were conducted earlier this month. 

The trio of polls also indicates that many Americans view Biden’s presidency as a failure.

Sixty-one percent of those questioned in the CNN survey said they see Biden’s presidency overall as a failure, with 38% viewing it as a success. 

According to the USA Today/Suffolk University survey, which was released on Tuesday, 44% of registered voters said history will assess Biden as a failed president, with 27% saying he will be judged as a fair president. Twenty-one percent of those questioned said history will view Biden as a good president, with only 5% saying he will be seen as a great president.

Just over a third of adults nationwide questioned in the Marist poll, which was released on Wednesday, said Biden will be remembered as one of the worst presidents in American history, with 19% saying he will be considered a below-average president.

Twenty-eight percent of participants offered that Biden’s legacy will be considered average, with 19% saying he would be regarded as above average or one of the best presidents in the nation’s history.

In his Oval Office speech, Biden will likely aim to cement his legacy as a president who pushed to stabilize politics at home while bolstering America’s leadership abroad, and as a leader who steered the nation out of the COVID-19 pandemic and made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy while lowering prescription drug prices.

Biden, in a letter to Americans released early Wednesday morning, emphasized that when he took office four years ago ‘we were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.’

And he touted that ‘today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years.’

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. However, the president’s numbers started sagging in August 2021 in the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and following a surge in COVID-19 cases that summer that was mainly among unvaccinated people.

The plunge in the president’s approval rating was also fueled by soaring inflation — which started spiking in the summer of 2021 and remains to date a major pocketbook concern with Americans — and the surge of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border.

Biden’s approval ratings slipped underwater in the autumn of 2021 and never reemerged into positive territory.

The president’s single term in the White House ends Monday, as Trump is inaugurated as Biden’s successor.

However, according to the USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 44% also said that Trump will be seen by history as a failed president. 

One in five said Trump would be viewed as a great president, with 19% saying good and 27% saying he would be judged a fair president.

Trump ended his first term in office with approval ratings in negative territory, including 47% approval in Fox News polling from four years ago.

In Marist polling four years ago, as Trump finished his first term, 47% thought he would be remembered as one of the nation’s worst presidents.

As Trump gets ready to once again assume the presidency, the Marist poll indicates opinions of him remain low, with 44% of Americans viewing him favorably and 49% holding an unfavorable opinion of the incoming president.

However, opinions about Trump’s first term have risen in numerous polls conducted since his convincing victory in November’s presidential election over Vice President Kamala Harris. The vice president succeeded Biden in July as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer after the president dropped out of the race following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

The poll also indicates that Americans have high expectations for Trump when it comes to the economy.

‘While many Americans feel the current economy is not working well for them, residents nationally have grown more optimistic about the future of their own finances,’ the poll’s release highlighted.

The survey also indicated Americans are divided about Trump’s proposed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

According to the poll, more than six in 10 disapprove of Trump’s pledge to pardon his supporters who were convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

The Marist poll was conducted Jan. 7-9, with 1,387 adults nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

The CNN poll was conducted Jan. 9-12, with 1,205 adults nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Government agencies are cautioning that President-elect Trump’s inauguration may attract violent extremists – especially those harboring ‘election-related grievances,’ according to a new report. 

While no specific credible threats have been identified, agencies like the FBI, Secret Service and Capitol Police authored a threat assessment asserting that extremists may view the inauguration as ‘their last opportunity to influence the election results through violence,’ Politico reports. 

The threat assessment identified foreign terrorists, domestic extremists or lone wolves who could pull off violent acts, including vehicle-ramming attacks, bomb hoaxes or swatting calls.

Likewise, law enforcement cited concerns about protests breaking into chaos, especially since certain groups who’ve faced arrests in previous protests have applied for demonstration permits. 

‘Past protests by some of these individuals have involved traffic blockades, trespassing, property destruction, and resisting arrest,’ the threat assessment said. 

Meanwhile, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger cautioned Monday that ‘lone actors’ are the most serious threat to inauguration festivities, during a press conference with federal and local law enforcement officials about the inauguration.

‘The biggest threat, I think, for all of us remains the lone actor,’ Manger said. ‘Just in the past week, while President Carter was lying in state, we had two lone actors show up at the Capitol: one trying to bring in knives and a machete; another one who was trying – what I believe – to disrupt the proceedings by setting their car on fire down in the peace circle area.’ 

‘Capitol Police were able to interdict these folks before they had a chance to do any harm,’ Manger said. ‘But that threat of the lone actor remains the biggest justification for us being at this heightened state of alert throughout the next week.’

As a result, the inauguration will feature a beefed up law enforcement presence. Approximately 4,000 local law enforcement officers have volunteered to assist, and 7,800 National Guard soldiers will also be deployed. 

Matt McCool, the Secret Service’s special agent in charge of the agency’s Washington field office, said that altogether roughly 25,000 law enforcement officers will be working. McCool said this year’s inauguration plan features a ‘slightly more robust security plan,’ in comparison to President Biden’s inauguration in 2021. 

‘What I can tell you is that we are 100% confident in the plan that we have put in place for this inauguration that the public and our protectees will be safe,’ McCool said.

Additionally, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said it is bracing for 12 separate First Amendment demonstrations at the inauguration, noting that they will have a right to peacefully protest. Still, she said violence won’t be permitted.  

‘I want to reiterate – as I always have – that violence, destruction and unlawful behavior will not be tolerated,’ Smith said Monday. ‘Offenders will face swift and decisive consequences.’

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report. 

A new national poll indicates that President Biden’s approval ratings remain well underwater as the nation’s 46th president is only days from leaving office.

Just 36% of Americans approve of the job Biden’s doing in the White House, according to the latest CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with 64% saying they disapprove. The approval rating matches the president’s previous low mark in the cable news network’s polling during Biden’s single term in office.

The poll was released on Wednesday, just hours before the president delivers his prime-time farewell address to the nation, with just days left before Biden’s term ends and he is succeeded by President-elect Trump in the White House.

Biden’s approval rating stands at 43% – slightly higher but still in negative territory – in national polls by USA Today/Suffolk University and Marist College which, along with the CNN survey, were conducted earlier this month. 

The trio of polls also indicates that many Americans view Biden’s presidency as a failure.

Sixty-one percent of those questioned in the CNN survey said they see Biden’s presidency overall as a failure, with 38% viewing it as a success. 

According to the USA Today/Suffolk University survey, which was released on Tuesday, 44% of registered voters said history will assess Biden as a failed president, with 27% saying he will be judged as a fair president. Twenty-one percent of those questioned said history will view Biden as a good president, with only 5% saying he will be seen as a great president.

Just over a third of adults nationwide questioned in the Marist poll, which was released on Wednesday, said Biden will be remembered as one of the worst presidents in American history, with 19% saying he will be considered a below-average president.

Twenty-eight percent of participants offered that Biden’s legacy will be considered average, with 19% saying he would be regarded as above average or one of the best presidents in the nation’s history.

In his Oval Office speech, Biden will likely aim to cement his legacy as a president who pushed to stabilize politics at home while bolstering America’s leadership abroad, and as a leader who steered the nation out of the COVID-19 pandemic and made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy while lowering prescription drug prices.

Biden, in a letter to Americans released early Wednesday morning, emphasized that when he took office four years ago ‘we were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.’

And he touted that ‘today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years.’

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. However, the president’s numbers started sagging in August 2021 in the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and following a surge in COVID-19 cases that summer that was mainly among unvaccinated people.

The plunge in the president’s approval rating was also fueled by soaring inflation – which started spiking in the summer of 2021 and remains to date a major pocketbook concern with Americans – and the surge of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border.

Biden’s approval ratings slipped underwater in the autumn of 2021 and never reemerged into positive territory.

The president’s single term in the White House ends Monday, Jan. 20, as Trump is inaugurated as Biden’s successor.

However, according to the USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 44% also said that Trump will be seen by history as a failed president. 

One in five said Trump would be viewed as a great president, with 19% saying good and 27% saying he would be judged a fair president.

Trump ended his first term in office with approval ratings in negative territory, including 47% approval in Fox News polling from four years ago.

In Marist polling four years ago, as Trump finished his first term, 47% thought he would be remembered as one of the nation’s worst presidents.

As Trump gets ready to once again assume the presidency, the Marist poll indicates opinions of him remain low, with 44% of Americans viewing him favorably and 49% holding an unfavorable opinion of the incoming president.

However, opinions about Trump’s first term have risen in numerous polls conducted since his convincing victory in November’s presidential election over Vice President Kamala Harris. The vice president succeeded Biden in July as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer after the president dropped out of the race following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

The poll also indicates that Americans have high expectations for Trump when it comes to the economy.

‘While many Americans feel the current economy is not working well for them, residents nationally have grown more optimistic about the future of their own finances,’ the poll’s release highlighted.

The survey also indicated Americans are divided about Trump’s proposed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

According to the poll, more than six in 10 disapprove of Trump’s pledge to pardon his supporters who were convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

The Marist poll was conducted Jan. 7-9, with 1,387 adults nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

The CNN poll was conducted Jan. 9-12, with 1,205 adults nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Conservatives on social media celebrated President-elect Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi’s response to a question from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. 

‘It would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime?’ Whitehouse said during his line of questioning. ‘It’s a prosecutor’s job to start with a crime and look for a name. Correct?’

Bondi responded by highlighting the federal government’s investigations into Trump.

‘Senator, I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump,’ Bondi said. 

‘They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him, actually starting back in 2016. They targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case. If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office,’ Bondi said. ‘I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered evenhandedly throughout this country. Senator, we’ve got to bring this country back together. We’ve got to move forward, or we’re going to lose our country.’

Conservatives on social media quickly took notice of the exchange. 

‘Pam Bondi totally flips the script on Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) who tried to make it seem like she will weaponize the DOJ,’ Florida’s Voice News assistant news director Eric Daughtery posted on X. ‘Masterclass.’

‘Pam Bondi is making Sheldon Whitehouse look stupid,’ Trump ’24 deputy rapid response director Greg Price posted on X. 

‘Senator Whitehouse unironically explaining that prosecutors should have a crime and then look for a suspect, not the other way around,’ Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich posted on X. 

‘Bondi responds by explaining DOJ did the opposite to Trump for years.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Whitehouse’s office but did not immediately receive a response.

Bondi is expected to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and some have speculated that she will earn some votes from Democrats. 

The Biden administration is facing pushback from both sides of the political aisle for moving to cross Cuba off of the state sponsors of terrorism list.

The U.S. slapped Cuba with the designation in 2021 shortly before then-President Donald Trump left office. 

In a statement issued on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that the administration is ‘taking several steps to support the Cuban people as part of an understanding with the Catholic Church under the leadership of Pope Francis and improve the livelihood of Cubans.’ 

‘First, today we notified Congress that President Biden determined Cuba should no longer be designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,’ she continued. 

‘Secondly, we notified Congress that the President issued a waiver for Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, otherwise known as the Libertad Act, for a period of six months.  Finally, President Biden rescinded the 2017 National Security Presidential Memorandum 5 on Cuba policy to eliminate the so-called ‘restricted list’ and by extension the additional regulations on engagement by U.S. persons and entities with Cuban persons and entities, beyond that which is currently prescribed in U.S. legislation,’ she noted. ‘We have also been informed by the Catholic Church that the Cuban government will soon begin releasing a substantial number of political prisoners.’

Democrats are divided on the matter.

The chair of the Florida Democratic Party urged the administration to ‘reverse course immediately.’

‘I am disappointed at the Biden Administration’s plan to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism,’ Nikki Fried said in a statement shared on the Florida Democratic Party’s X feed. ‘We condemn in the strongest terms Cuba’s removal from this list, as well as any possible lifting of economic sanctions, and call on the Biden Administration to reverse course immediately.’

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., also disagreed with the administration’s decision.

‘Do the majority of Cuban Americans support the removal of Cuba, an adversary of the US, from the list of state sponsors of terrorism? If the answer is ‘no,’ then why is the Biden Administration unnecessarily alienating Cuban Americans? I agree with the Florida Democratic Party here,’ the congressman posted.

Rep. Cathy Castor, D-Fla., declared in a statement, ‘Autocratic Cuba has failed its people, and I disagree with the President that sanctions should be lifted without an end to the Cuban regime’s repression.’

Some Florida Republicans have leveled fierce criticism.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., decried Biden’s decision as ‘pathetic and cowardly.’ 

Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., declared in a post, ‘Once again, the Democrats have BETRAYED the Cubans! Shame on the entire Biden Administration for taking Cuba off the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. Cuba is a LEADING sponsor of Terrorism, harboring, training & enabling Hamas, Hezbollah & other terrorist enemies of the USA.’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also blasted the administration.

‘The Biden Administration continues on its quest to leave as much wreckage behind on its way out the door as possible. Cuba should not be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism,’ he declared in a post on X.

However, some Democrats have applauded the administration.

‘I welcome the Biden administration’s steps to remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list – a long overdue action that will help normalize relations with our neighbor,’ Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said in a statement.