U.S. Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi clashed with a senior Democratic senator during her confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday.

Bondi was forced to defend President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of FBI chief Kash Patel when Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., pressed her about his past comments.

He referred, among other things, to Patel’s proposal to close the FBI headquarters and threaten to create an “enemies list.”

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President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal clashed during her confirmation hearing. (Getty Images)

“Is this a person who should appropriately be the FBI director? Aren’t these comments inappropriate? Shouldn’t you disavow it and ask him to revoke it?” Blumenthal hammered.

Bondi responded: “Senator, I don’t know all of these comments. I have not discussed these comments with Mr. Patel.”

“What I know is Mr. Patel…” she began before Blumenthal tried to interrupt her.

Bondi pressed further: “Excuse me. What I do know is that Mr. Patel was a career prosecutor. He was a public defender who defended people. And he also has a lot of experience within the intelligence community.”

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“What I can sit here and tell you is, Mr. Patel, if he cooperates with the leadership of the FBI, if he is confirmed, and if I am confirmed, he will follow the law. “If I’m the attorney general of the United States of America, and I don’t think he would do anything else,” Bondi said.

Blumenthal responded, “Well, let me just say that the response I would have hoped to hear from you is that these comments are inappropriate and that you will ask him to disavow or retract them if he comes forward.” appears to this committee because it is indeed a deterrent to fair enforcement and the rule of law.”

This came after Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R-I., similarly pushed Bondi onto what Democrats have dubbed Patel’s “enemy list.”

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They refer to a list of 60 people in Patel’s book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” whom he branded as part of the “Deep State.”

Bondi also defended Patel during Whitehouse’s questioning, vowing that there would never be an “enemies list” in the DOJ.