“There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society,” Bondi said on an episode of the “Katie Miller Pod” that dropped Monday.

“We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

Some conservative voices were quick to criticize Bondi’s remarks — with critics highlighting an X post from Kirk in 2024 contending that “Hate speech does not exist legally in America.”

After facing blowback, Bondi clarified that she will target “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence,” which she said “is NOT protected by the First Amendment.”

“For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over,” Bondi wrote on X Tuesday morning.

“You cannot call for someone’s murder,” she went on. “You cannot swat a Member of Congress. You cannot dox a conservative family and think it will be brushed off as ‘free speech.’ These acts are punishable crimes, and every single threat will be met with the full force of the law.”

Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.Under 18 U.S.C. §…

For years, conservatives have battled against Big Tech companies for using broad definitions of hate speech in their content moderation policies.

Typically, hate speech was seen as vile remarks against specific groups of people, including comments that were racist, sexist and homophobic.

Kirk was among the critics of censorship campaigns, though his definition of hate speech doesn’t appear to include incitement of violence.

“Hate speech does not exist legally in America,” Kirk declared on X in 2024. “There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”

Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech.And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.Keep America free.

In addition to vowing to go after hate speech, Bondi railed against people who “say horrible things” and claimed that their employers have an “obligation to get rid of people.”

Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech.And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.Keep America free.

She weighed in on reports about a now-fired Office Depot worker who refused to print images of Kirk for a funeral and suggested the Justice Department might drop charges.

“Businesses cannot discriminate,” she told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday evening. “If you wanna go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that.”

“We can prosecute you for that. I have Harmeet Dhillon right now in our civil rights unit looking at that immediately, that Office Depot had done that. We’re looking it up.”

In the last 24 hours, the Attorney General of the United States declared hate speech is prosecutable and the DOJ will target small businesses that do not want to work with individuals whose views they dislike. She must think she is the Attorney General of the United Kingdom.

This is egregiously wrong. The First Amendment exists precisely to protect speech some people may find offensive. https://t.co/mvtoBvtpxD

That’s a reference to the Office Depot employee who turned away a customer who wanted to print a poster of Charlie Kirk. The employee was fired and the company apologized.

Criticisms against Bondi’s comments quickly mounted on the right.