During his remarks, Trump asked Bondi if she felt like answering the reporter's question. "I don't mind answering," the attorney general replied. When the president finished speaking, Bondi addressed the reporter and cited an interview she did with Fox News in February, which she said had "been getting a lot of attention."

A small but influential cohort of the president’s far-right political coalition spared him their ire but turned with a vengeance on the attorney general and the top officials at the F.B.I.