Gavin Newsom Didn’t Just Drop a Nickname — He Branded Pam Bondi With a Line So Sharp It Left the Studio Stunned and the Audience Scrambling to Decode It
It wasn’t just a jab. It was a pivot. The tone shifted, the air thickened, and what sounded like a nickname landed more like a warning. The moment was brief, but the ripple wasn’t. Something got named — fast, sharp, and louder than the script allowed. And somewhere in that flash, the broadcast stopped being playful and started feeling like a reveal
Gavin Newsom unveiled a biting, new nickname for Pam Bondi in a fresh round of potshots at President Trump and his inner circle.
The California governor zeroed in on “Pedophile-protector Pam” after the attorney general’s tense Senate hearing, where she refused to answer questions about Trump’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Pedophile-protector Pam is still refusing to answer questions — and still hiding the Epstein files,” his press account posted Tuesday.
Photos from Bondi’s Senate hearing Tuesday suggest she never intended to seriously engage with the senators. Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst photographed her notes from the hearing, revealing that Bondi reminded herself to simply attack senators, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, rather than answer their questions.
However, the 59-year-old attorney general’s refusal to deny at the hearing whether there were incriminating photos of Donald Trump in the Epstein files underscored Democrats’ urgency to get the documents released.
Newsom’s team has employed alliterative tactics to troll Trump on his relationship to Epstein before. In September, Newsom mocked Trump’s new rose garden patio as the “Predator Patio.”
The California governor, 57, has previously said he believes Bondi has blocked the release of the Epstein files under the direction of Trump.
In July, he told reporter Marco Foster, “Pam Bondi doesn’t move without Trump. If she’s fired, she’s the fall person because there’s no question she was directed by Trump to say what she said. Why was she told not to release the files?”
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to request for comment.
On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel posted, “The transparency I promised is being delivered by this FBI,” and his post was hit with a Community Note pointing out the administration has not yet released the Epstein files.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed swearing in Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who would be the final signature needed to bring a petition to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act on the House floor, though he denies the delay is related to the Epstein files.
Newsom’s skewering of Bondi comes as he lobbed fresh attacks on others in the MAGA administration.
On Tuesday, he trolled Trump’s claim that an an insurrection was happening in Portland, Oregon by posting pictures of the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol. Newsom also mocked Kristi Noem’s photo-op in “war-ravaged” Portland by posting a screenshot of her promo video that showed just a few protestors on the street, including a guy in a chicken suit.