‘It took other similar cases four days, five days, four years if you look at certain shooters,’ the president said.
President Donald Trump lauded Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for their handling of the investigation into the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“I think that [Bondi] has done an unbelievable job … and [Patel], take a look at what he did with respect to this horrible person … he did it in two days,” Trump told reporters on Sept. 16 outside the White House, referring to the capture of the suspected assassin this past week.
“It took other similar cases four days, five days, four years if you look at certain shooters,” Trump added. He then said that he has “confidence in everybody in the administration.”
On Monday night, Bondi said in an interview with Katie Miller that her office would go after “hate speech” and suggested such forms of speech would be prosecuted, drawing criticism from prominent conservative X accounts.
On Tuesday, Bondi issued a statement on X clarifying what she said.
“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime,” Bondi wrote in a lengthy post on X. “For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.”
Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. 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.
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) September 16, 2025
Under 18 U.S.C. §…
She cited a section of the U.S. Code making it a federal crime to transmit “any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another,” and another portion of the code making it a felony to threaten public officials, members of Congress, or their families.
When speaking to Miller, Bondi said that “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.” She added, “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
Conservative commentators were critical of her comments on social media.
“Hate speech is not prosecutable in America (which is good). Pam Bondi knows this,” media personality Megyn Kelly said in a Tuesday post on X.
Hate speech is not prosecutable in America (which is good). Pam Bondi knows this.
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) September 16, 2025
I am guessing, given the statements by Stephen Miller yesterday about targeting violent cells, she means those who actually plan violence,which would not be about the speech but the conspiracy. https://t.co/gYpr6GxtV8
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh wrote on X, “There should be social consequences for people who openly celebrate the murder of an innocent man. But there obviously shouldn’t be any legal repercussions for “hate speech,” which is not even a valid or coherent concept. There is no law against saying hateful things, and there shouldn’t be.”
There should be social consequences for people who openly celebrate the murder of an innocent man. But there obviously shouldn’t be any legal repercussions for “hate speech,” which is not even a valid or coherent concept. There is no law against saying hateful things, and there… https://t.co/vqF7wCL3kz
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 16, 2025
