Bondi spoke to audience of one
Pam Bondi, a Floridian and alumna of the University of Florida and Stetson Law School, testified before a congressional oversight committee Wednesday. In my opinion, she was combative, argumentative and histrionic in her testimony.
Clearly, she was not trying to impress anyone but her boss — the president of the United States. One could argue that her boss is actually the American people or the U.S. Constitution, but she obviously thinks she works for President Donald Trump
Was it worth it? Was it worth ruining her career and stellar reputation to debase herself in front of the entire world?
I think everyone enters Trump’s orbit trading at 100 cents on the dollar. Eventually, their worth is zero. The only question is how quickly they devalue themselves — and Bondi’s devaluation has been faster than most.
— George Devitt, Maitland
Unqualified medical professionals
Scott Maxwell’s column “For-profit nursing schools need to be addressed” (Feb. 11) shows how gullible some of us are as we chase success (just look at Trump University). It also reminded me that the person who was dead last in their medical school graduating class still gets to state “Doctor” on their business card.
— Choice Edwards, Clermont
Baseless election fraud claims
Trump won two of the last three presidential elections. The same voting system was in place for all of them. He boasts incessantly about “landslide” victories in 2016 and 2024, yet refuses to accept that he lost in 2020. His rigged election claims have been thoroughly debunked over and over again, ad nauseam. Last month, the FBI raided a Georgia election office and confiscated hundreds of boxes of material from the 2020 election. Trump is intent on pushing his baseless rigged election narrative nearly six years later.
Trump said recently that he only loses elections because Democrats import undocumented immigrants to vote. This is spurious and completely unfounded. The Voter Fraud Database of the Heritage Foundation found only 23 instances of noncitizens voting between 2003 and 2022. Trump said that Republicans should “take over the voting” and “nationalize the voting.”
He has finally said the quiet part out loud. I believe his constant claims of election fraud are nothing but deflection and projection. I believe he intends to rig future elections. Will Republicans in Congress “Stop the Steal?” Will his cannon shot across the bow of democracy rouse them from their torpor? Will they finally stand up against Trump? I’m not holding my breath.
— Vinny D’Assaro, Winter Park
The right to vote by mail
Donald Trump’s push to eliminate or severely restrict mail-in voting is not about protecting elections. It’s about limiting who participates.
I live in Boca Raton. My elderly mother has almost no mobility. Without mail-in voting, her right to vote would effectively disappear. She is far from alone. Seniors, disabled citizens and caregivers across Florida depend on mail-in ballots to exercise a basic constitutional right.
What makes this especially painful is my family history. My mother lost her brother in World War II when his plane was shot down over London. Her family lost a son and a brother fighting for democracy so that Americans would have more rights, not fewer.
It’s hard to accept that a draft-dodging convicted felon claims the authority to decide whose votes matter and whose don’t. Mail-in voting is not a threat to democracy. Denying access to the ballot is. We should be expanding participation in democracy, not restricting it.
— Sherry Zimet, Boca Raton
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