CA senators Padilla, Schiff, AG Pam Bondi clash during hearing. What they said
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Padilla accuses DOJ of politicization, citing shifts in priorities and practices.
- Bondi defends DOJ actions, points to California crime data and staffing.
- Senate hearing turned contentious: interruptions, past protest, budget disputes.
California’s U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff engaged in a verbal slugfest Tuesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who told Padilla “I wish you loved your state of California as much as you hate President Trump,” and Schiff that he owes “the president an apology” for his role in the 2019 impeachment.
The senators were trying to ask Bondi about what they saw as the politicization of the Justice Department, historically an independent agency, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
The five-hour hearing was the sort of session that Congress routinely conducts, a thorough look at how a government agency is doing its job. Such hearings involve members of both parties questioning those in charge, and the out-of-power White House party typically gets rough.
But usually the administration official doesn’t fight back in such a biting way. Schiff and Padilla both have been sharp critics of the Trump Justice Department.
Padilla has been a leading voice in questioning what he considers unfair immigration policy. Schiff, long a Trump nemesis, has questioned the Justice Department’s selective prosecution of those it disagrees with.
When Padilla, D-Calif., asked for calm at the tense committee hearing, Bondi reminded the senator of the June incident in which he was handcuffed and forcibly removed from a Los Angeles news conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Padilla had said he wanted to ask a question and identified himself.
“You want order in here now, yet you stormed the director of homeland security, Kristi Noem,” Bondi said. “You sure didn’t have order that day did you?”
“I did not not storm the secretary,” Padilla replied.
A politicized Justice Department
Each senator gets 10 minutes to ask questions, and Padilla took about half his time scolding Bondi and the Trump administration for politicizing the department. He said the agency has been “repurposed in ways we’ve never seen before.”
“These are not minor bureaucratic changes. They represent a fundamental shift in the Department of Justice, its policies, its priorities and its practices,” he said.
Too often, Padilla charged, Trump’s Justice Department acts as “an arm of immigration policy and in so doing under-resources other critical missions.”
Bondi sat quietly but once Padilla finished, she had had enough.
She talked about the need to continue fighting crime in California, and insisted “That should be something that we should be talking about and working together on yet we are not.”
Schiff, meanwhile, has been at odds with Trump for years. As the House Intelligence Committee chairman from 2019 to 2023, and its top Democrat in the four years before that, he was an outspoken Trump critic.
Under Bondi, Schiff said Tuesday, the “department has become President Trump’s personal sword and shield to go after his ever growing list of political enemies,” the senator said.
Frustrated by what he regarded as a lack of was answers to his concerns about how the administration was investigating those it considered its enemies, he reminded Bondi “This is supposed to be an oversight hearing.”
Bondi interrupted and sarcastically said “oversight?”’ Schiff continued, “In which members of congress can get serious answers to serious questions.”
“Were the riots in L.A. serious?” Bondi asked, referring to demonstrations over Trump administration policy earlier this year.
Padilla vs. Bondi
Speaking to Padilla, Bondi noted that her employees are “working without pay right now because you voted to shut down the government.”
Padilla has voted several times against a Republican budget plan to keep the government open until November 21, but has consistently voted for a Democratic plan that would provide more health care funding and keep the government running through the end of this month.
When he finally could speak without interruption, Padilla told Bondi that too often, “prosecutors are being fired for telling agencies to follow the law and uphold the Constitution.”
He asked Bondi about the case of immigration czar Tom Homan, who was allegedly given $50,000 cash by undercover FBI agents as part of an investigation.
Earlier Tuesday, Bondi told Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Homan was “was subjected to a full review by the FBI, agents and DOJ prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any wrongdoing.”
She told Padilla “I have answered that question multiple times. Yet you did not have the courtesy to be sitting in here for the hearing,” Bondi said.
Padilla was not present for most of the hearing. It’s common for senators not to sit through such hearings. Padilla said he was monitoring the hearing from his office.
Bondi wasn’t buying it.
“You want order in this proceeding now. You sure didn’t have order when you stormed Secretary Noem at a press conference in California, did you?” she asked.
This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 10:46 AM with the headline "CA senators Padilla, Schiff, AG Pam Bondi clash during hearing. What they said."
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