Better: "Wes Moore Confirms He Won't Say Whether He's Running for President"

She's not stupid. She is playing a role.

The stupidity here is painful. https://t.co/7GinmSM47T

— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) May 1, 2025

This Pam Bondi wasn't stupid, and neither is this one. As reported in The New York Times shortly after Donald J. Trump was elected to his second term

Reports of deceptive practices and fraud by Donald J. Trump and his Trump University business unit had been piling up for several years in states across the nation, including in Florida.

The state attorney general in New York moved in, filing a lawsuit in 2013 that accused Mr. Trump and his for-profit trade school of “engaging in persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct,” even though by that point Trump University was already out of business.

The Florida attorney general’s office, which Pam Bondi had taken over in 2011, handled it differently.

She publicly acknowledged that her office was examining complaints about Trump University, but it decided against a formal investigation.

The decision came soon after Mr. Trump, through his family foundation, sent a check for $25,000 to a political action committee associated with Ms. Bondi, who was running for a second term.

(It appears also that Kamala Harris received $5,000-$6,000 donation from Trump after Harris took office as California Attorney General- that is, far less money for political moves in a significantly larger state.)

In 2016, Bondi would tell the Tampa Bay Times "I never, nor was my office, investigating him. Never. I would never lie. I would never take money. I've been obviously devastated over this." (She has recovered from her devastation quite nicely.) That's the same Pam seen in the video below boasting that seizures of fetanyl by "your DEA agency" has "saved "258 million lives." Credit the Attorney General with coming up with a very odd number, thus adding a whiff of credibility to a truly incredible number.

Since then, Pam Bondi was nominated (and ultimately approved) as Attorney General of the USA with a mandate from the most powerful President in history to go after his enemies, and hers if she wishes. One suspects that the intersection of that Venn diagram is conveniently quite large. 

But stupid? I'll show you stupid. This is a portion, beginning at 8:02 of the video below, of the May 1 episode of The View in which Joy Behar, Alyssa Farrah Griffin (who evidently likes Moore a lot) and the three other women chatted with Democratic governor Wes Moore of Maryland:

Behar: So you sound very presidential to me today.
Griffin (off-camera): He always has sounded presidential.
Behar: But Democrats have been in a lot of disarray. We know that, I mean, having problems, a lot of them self-inflicted, probably. But you've emerged as a promising new face of the Democratic party and even George  Clooney has said "I wish you had talked about me that way." He said "you're a proper new leader and someone we could all get behind." I believe that's true. I think that means you have to run.. Are you going to run?
Moore: I am- I am- I am not running. I am not running.

Behar: You're not?

Moore: I am not running.
Behar: You keep saying that. Are you saying that for sure?
Moore: I'm not. I'm not.

Griffin: He's saying he's not running. don't press him too hard.

Aware of the impressive political talent of the Maryland governor, the conservative New York Post practically had an orgasm.

Wes Moore confirms he is not running for President in 2028 https://t.co/2Mfqkf6g4k pic.twitter.com/OIFYlFGC1P

— New York Post (@nypost) May 2, 2025

There was only one problem with the reaction of the New York Post and of Alyssa Farrah Griffin. They completely misinterpreted Wes Moore's answer.

Behar was not concerned with whether had formed a political action committee or even put out feelers about a run for the presidency (in an election President Trump may cancel, as it were). She wanted to know whether he will run for the presidency. She asked "are you going," a use of the future tense.

Moore answered as would any smart, albeit disingenuous, politician, traits which go together as do soup and salad, cake and coffee cookies and milk, Asian cuisine and rice. He replied in the present tense. Griffin seemed to believe that his answer was clear and definitive.

A lot of Democrats want Moore to run for President. (How precious the assumption that President Trump will allow federal elections in 2028!) Not being an idiot, Moore has to remain noncommittal and stated "I am not running"- not even "I am not running for President." He thereby wisely left his options open, as both the women of The View and the NY Post should have expected. 

So Pam Bondi, who must remain a dishonest person to keep her job is stupid? She is many things, the vast majority of them bad. But compared to those who believe that the popular Wes Moore has taken himself out of contention for the presidency in the next cycle, Bondi could open a  string of Mensa chapters.

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