Ben Ferguson and Ted Cruz Moderate Interview With Pam Bondi at CPAC 2025

Hosts of The Ben Ferguson Podcast, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ben Ferguson, moderated an interview with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Conservative Political Alliance Conference Feb. 20 to discuss how the chief of the Department of Justice plans to make America safer again.  

Cruz opened the discussion by asking Bondi how she plans to “restore integrity to the department” and to cease the Biden administration’s “weaponization and politicization” of the department.  

“What concerned me the most — it’s the volume of how bad it was, and it still is,” Bondi said. “We’re working on it. … we’ve got a team of great people, and on day one I issued 14 executive orders, and number one is the weaponization ends and it ends now.”  

Cruz said that over the past four years, he has heard from federal employees and FBI agents who were frustrated with the politization of the FBI and DOJ. Cruz said now, with Bondi, these employees can return to upholding the rule of law, since they were allegedly unable to under the former presidential administration.  

Bondi agreed with Cruz’s statements and said she aims to restore the DOJ.  

“That’s thanks to Donald J. Trump getting back in office. He gave us a clear directive: Make America safe. And that’s what we’re going to do,” Bondi said.  

Bondi said law enforcement agents should not be used to further politically motivated investigations, such as the raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022, and said the DOJ must go back to its original mission: upholding the law.  

“We are returning them to their core function, fighting violent crime, and that’s what the great majority of men and women in law enforcement — DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshalls, FBI, as well as the incredible legal team at the Justice Department — that’s what they want to do,” Bondi said.  

Cruz pivoted the talk’s focus to discuss Bondi’s first 15 days as U.S. attorney general and how she has taken actionable steps to maintain the law and prosecute criminals. Cruz commended Bondi for the work she has done to help mitigate the border crisis and said he had heard that Bondi had some important news to share about criminal activity in Texas.  

Bondi said that while the official press release hadn’t been made public before the panel, Joint Task Force Alpha in conjunction with the DOJ, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security just made a “huge arrest” in Juarez, Mexico to stop a human smuggling operation that involved children. She said successful arrests like these are “why we do what we do every day.”  

Before serving as U.S. attorney general, Bondi said she was Florida’s state attorney general, and noted that the fentanyl crisis was a growing issue before she stepped into her new position. Now, she said the crisis at the border has only exacerbated drug smuggling and violence overall.  

“And now with this horrible open border policy, just flowing … across our borders and killing kids and killing adults every single day, and it’s criminal that no one was doing anything to stop it. I can’t comprehend how any administration — progressive nor conservative — how any administration could tolerate that and let that happen,” Bondi said.  

She said the border crisis “ended day one” after President Donald Trump closed the border. Bondi said she traveled to the border in Arizona with Lara Trump and Morgan Ortagus in September 2024.  

“I saw firsthand, there was nothing humanitarian that was happening at that border, nothing,” Bondi said.  

The DOJ chief said she saw “piles and piles of passports just thrown from every country you could imagine.” She said under the previous administration, children and individuals from all over would lie about their country of origin, and would then enter the country with false documentation.  

Bondi also said border patrol agents informed her about the term “disposable child,” which referred to a child who would repeatedly cross the border with different individuals pretending to be their guardian, which is a known human trafficking tactic.  

Cruz then asked Bondi if she is concerned that potential terrorist attacks will occur within the country because of the high number of illegal aliens that crossed the border under the Biden administration. Bondi said she does think the country is at risk and she emphasized how important it is to support Trump’s efforts to close the border and prosecute criminal illegal aliens before more American citizens are harmed.  

Bondi referenced the case of Laken Riley, a college student that was assaulted and died at the hands of a Venezuelan immigrant in February 2024, according to the Associated Press. A year later, Congress passed the Laken Riley Act Jan. 29 to enable DHS to prosecute “certain aliens” who commit crimes, according to Congress.gov.  

Bondi said cases such as Riley’s must not happen again and that criminal acts must be prevented to keep the country safe.  

“Laken Riley is probably the most prominent name, but look how many Laken Rileys are out there. One victim is too many,” Bondi said.  

At the end of the panel, Bondi described what it has been like during the first couple of weeks that she has been in office. She said the most rewarding aspect of serving as U.S. attorney general is that she gets to not only help bring people to justice but also help to protect the American people across a broader scale.  

“You just hit the ground running, literally, and don’t look back,” Bondi said. “I don’t look at what time of day it is. I don’t think I’ve slept in 15 days, but you don’t want to, and then when you find out about this human trafficking ring that was just broken up, … that’s why we’re all doing what we’re doing.” 

Davis is the Editor-in-Chief for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on X.