Pam Bondi refused to say President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden in her Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. attorney general on Wednesday, intensifying Democratic concerns that the former Florida attorney general would be a rubber stamp for the White House.

“At issue, I believe, in this nomination hearing is not your competence, nor your experience,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democratic member of the Judicial Committee. “At issue is your ability to say ‘No.’”

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, had less contentious time at his simultaneous Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for his nomination to become secretary of state, though it was interrupted by an anti-war protester repeating Trump’s old nickname for him, “Little Marco.”

At her Judiciary hearing, Bondi, a prosecutor in Hillsborough County for years before she was elected Florida’s attorney general, won effervescent praise from Republicans, who control the U.S. Senate.

But Democrats cited concerns about Bondi’s record in Tallahassee from 2011 to 2019, including her decision not to join the multistate lawsuit against the for-profit Trump University, and her later work with Tallahassee consulting firm Ballard Partners and its clients, including the nation of Qatar.

Republicans, meanwhile, said Bondi was the right person to oversee the U.S. Department of Justice. Bondi was Trump’s second choice for attorney general after former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz dropped out in November amid an ethics scandal.

“I can tell you wholeheartedly that President Trump couldn’t have a better leader than Pam Bondi for attorney general,” said U.S. Rep. Rick Scott, R-Fla. who served with Bondi in Tallahassee. “She is undoubtedly qualified, brilliant and committed to defending and protecting the laws of this nation, and has a track record to prove it.”

Republican senators, as well as Bondi, also criticized outgoing Attorney general Merrick Garland and former special prosecutor Jack Smith’s indictments against Trump on charges of attempting to overturn the election and his handling of classified documents.

“This department has been weaponized for years and years and years, and it has to stop,” Bondi said.

Democrats, though, said they were concerned about Bondi’s long-established loyalty to Trump,

Bondi was a special advisor to Trump during his first impeachment in 2019-20 and also backed Trump’s efforts to challenge his election loss later that year. She claimed there was “evidence of cheating” in Pennsylvania and there were “fake ballots coming in late,” though she did not provide clear evidence.

Asked by Durbin if she would “say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020,” Bondi would only say Biden “is the President of the United States.”

Pressed further by Durbin, she said “I saw many things there” in Pennsylvania, but would only say “I accept the results.”

She also claimed there was “a peaceful transition of power” in 2020-21 despite the pro-Trump mob violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Asked if she believed those rioters convicted of violent assaults on law enforcement officers should be pardoned by Trump, Bondi said she would “look at each case and advise on a case by case basis” if asked by Trump. She added she condemns any violence against law enforcement.

Democrats also questioned if she herself, or the controversial Trump nominee to head the FBI, Kash Patel, would weaponize the Justice Department at the president’s request.

She was pressed about her comment on Fox News in 2023 that “the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated.”

Bondi said she would not answer “hypotheticals” about whether Smith or Garland would be among those investigated, saying, “No one will be pre-judged.”

Patel listed 60 members of what he called “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State” in a 2022 book, including Hillary Clinton, former Trump appointees such as former attorney general Bill Barr, and multiple journalists.

But Bondi said she would not call Patel’s names an “enemies list,” and cited his work as a public defender and prosecutor. “I believe that Kash is the right person at this time for this job.”

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Bondi “you should be happy that so many comments have been directed towards Kash Patel. … That means they’re out of stuff for you.”

But U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he was “deeply disturbed” by Bondi’s responses.

“I believe being the people’s lawyer means you have to be able to say ‘No’ to the president of the United States,” Whitehouse said. “You have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. … You have to be able to say that January 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned.”

Bondi responded angrily.

“Senator, first, I need to clarify something that you said, that I have to sit up here and say these things,” Bondi said. “No, I don’t. … I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything.”

At his hearing, Rubio defended Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and his criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia as well as its obligations to NATO.

“Placing our core national interest above all else is not isolation,” Rubio said. “Nations proceed in their own best interest.”

But he also said if nothing changes, the U.S. “will have to deal with” a Chinese attack on Taiwan by 2030.

He added that any potential end to the war between Israel and Hamas must include the release of all Israeli hostages.

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