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This is Totally Normal Quote of the Day , a feature highlighting a statement from the news that exemplifies just how extremely normal everything has become.

Hello, Pam Bondi? Is your agency being weaponized?

That’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s question for the head of the DOJ, after Trump border czar Tom Homan threatened her for hosting a webinar with the Immigrant Defense Project, an advocacy group that offers legal aid to migrants, in which folks were educated on their legal rights , in case they encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

In an interview with Fox News , Homan said he emailed the deputy attorney general, asking them to look into whether the representative was somehow obstructing justice.

“Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts? If so, what are we going to do about it? … Maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now.”

Ocasio-Cortez rejected the idea that informing people of their rights is “impeding law enforcement.” She wrote on X , “Maybe he can learn to read. The Constitution would be a good place to start.” Homan, again on Fox News, said he is “well aware of the Constitution, but I am also aware the DOJ gives legal interpretations on issues like this to ensure ICE acts in accordance with the law.”

On Friday, AOC took things up a notch and penned a letter to AG Pam Bondi, demanding confirmation of whether she and/or her office were in fact under federal investigation. “Over the past two weeks, ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan has gone on multiple forums threatening political prosecution against me, citing resources I distributed informing my constituents and the American public of their constitutional and legal rights,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.

The representative also reminded Bondi of the First Amendment right to free speech, noting that Vice President J.D. Vance recently said, “We may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.”

“Mr. Homan’s repeated attempts to use your agency to politically intimidate duly elected officials are a textbook threat to the right to free speech in the United States,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Threatening criminal proceedings for exercising the First Amendment is itself a violation of the First Amendment.”

AOC’s full-throated response to the Trump administration is a stark contrast to how her party has been handling Trump 2.0. Democrats have consistently been losing public confidence, even before Trump took office. A CNN poll from early January found that Democrats had a 33 percent approval rating. By February, that number had sunk to 21 percent, in a separate Quinnipiac poll. The party has been widely criticized for sitting quietly on the sidelines while Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting immigrants and LGBTQ+ rights and gutting federal agencies.

Democrats have slowly started to raise more of a stink. Last week, California Rep. Dave Min introduced legislation (by the groan-worthy name of the BAD DOGE Act) to rein in Elon Musk, who’s been spearheading the Trump administration’s mass firing of civil servants—but it has little chance of moving forward given the GOP’s majority in the House.

Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has taken a different approach. She’s been leveraging her social media prowess and communicating about what the president’s administration is doing and what it means for her constituents across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Now the Democratic firebrand has shown she’s also not afraid to engage in a public showdown with the president and his cronies. Her party should be taking notes.