Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the Justice Department, will almost certainly be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, but her confirmation hearing on Wednesday was still quite contentious.

Bondi repeatedly faced questions from Democrats that were clearly intended as "gotcha" moments to trip her up or drive a wedge between her and Trump, but she acquitted herself well and deftly fended off the partisan attacks, according to the Daily Mail.

Of particular note is the way she handled pointed questions about the 2020 election that seemed deliberately designed to force her into either agreeing with or contradicting Trump's claims about election fraud, both of which would have been used against her, but was able to sidestep those queries and avoid the issue.

Bondi dodges "gotcha" questions about the 2020 election

The Daily Mail reported that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, repeatedly grilled Attorney General-designate Bondi on President-elect Trump's "stolen" and "rigged" election claims and whether or not she believed that President Joe Biden had been legitimately elected.

Bondi declined to take the bait, however, and at one point said, "Ranking Member, President Joe Biden is the President of the United States. He was duly sworn in, and he is the President of the United States." She further added, "There was a peaceful transition of power," and, "President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024."

Unsatisfied, Durbin pressed Bondi on whether she doubted the validity of Biden's election, but Bondi again sidestepped the obvious trap and reiterated that "of course" Biden was the current president.

The leading Democrat on the committee continued to pepper the nominee with various 2020 election-related questions, and his increasing frustration grew evident as she continued to avoid the prepared pitfalls and responded with non-controversial answers.

Indeed, Vice President-elect JD Vance even shared a brief video clip on his X account of Bondi getting the better of Durbin in one particular exchange and declared that she was "crushing it" in the confirmation hearing.

Dems hurt themselves with "clumsy questions"

AG nominee Bondi did so well in her confirmation hearing that even MSNBC's "MaddowBlog," certainly no fan of Trumpworld, was compelled to acknowledge that Democrats on the committee "missed the mark" with "clumsy questions" that set the stage for Bondi to shine.

In fact, the outlet suggested that some of the Democratic questions "would make courtroom veterans and young prosecutors alike cringe," and that despite raising some valid issues, some members nonetheless "allowed a prepared Bondi to elude clear statements about many of those concerns."

One particular moment highlighted by the blog that hurt Democrats and helped Bondi was when she faced a series of rapid-fire demanding questions from Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) but was granted no opportunity to respond, which prompted her to exclaim at one point, "I'm not here to be bullied."

Another notable moment, also posted to X by VP-elect Vance as an example of an "extraordinary exchange," was when Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) asked a series of probing questions but was called out in response by Bondi for being the only committee member who refused to meet with her before the hearing, at which point some of those basic queries could have been addressed ahead of time.

Bondi's priorities and vision for the DOJ

The Daily Mail noted that Bondi laid out her top priorities and vision for running the DOJ in her opening statement and said that, if confirmed, "My overriding objective will be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals and that includes getting back to basics -- gangs, drugs, terrorist cartels, our border, and our foreign adversaries."

And, in an unsubtle shot at the current politicized leadership of the DOJ, she added, "Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end. America must have one tier of justice for all."