Bondi says Maine will lose federal funding over Title IX violations: 'It's ridiculous'
Attorney General Pam Bondi discusses the Justice Department's lawsuit against Maine over women's sports, the battle over the deportation of a migrant with alleged MS-13 gang ties and new allegations against NY AG Letitia James.
Attorney General Pam Bondi slammed Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday after the Democratic lawmaker downplayed the transgender athlete controversy in her state.
Bondi said on "America’s Newsroom" with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that Mills was "very wrong" to merely brush off the transgender athlete issue because there were only two cases in the state. Maine has refused to alter its policies to keep biological males out of girls’ and women’s sports.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi looks on during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"First, to say only two is shocking. We gave two examples … First of all, these are boys in girls’ locker room," Bondi said. "One is too many. It’s ridiculous what she said, and it doesn’t just affect one young woman – it affects the entire team. It affects the entire team, the entire sport within that school.
"These young women are not being able to compete because of a boy. The boy in 2024 came in 43rd in his category in track and field. When he competed in the women’s sport, he won. Governor Mills shouldn’t have said that, shouldn’t have done this, should be supporting women in the state of Maine. And we’re going to fight for them if they’re not."
Mills appeared on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" to discuss her battle with several departments of the Trump administration, which started when the state refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s "No Men in Women’s Sports" executive order which prohibited biological males in girls’ and women’s sports.
The appearance came after a judge barred the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from freezing funds for Maine. All of it stemmed from the state’s refusal to comply with Title IX rules.
Pam Bondi recognizes family and friends in attendance as she delivers opening remarks during a Senate Judiciary committee hearing on her nomination to be attorney general of the United States on Jan. 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Jack Gruber / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
"The chief executive is required by the Constitution to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, not to make the laws, not to invent the laws or reinterpret the laws by tweet or Instagram post or press release or executive order. He’s not allowed to do that."
Mills recalled the letters she received from the Department of Education, the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services. She described an April 2 letter from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins as "rather appalling" and said some described it as a "ransom note."
In the letter, the administration threatened to cut off funding for Maine because of the state’s continued allowance of biological males in girls’ and women’s sports.
"The very next day, because there are maybe at most two transgender athletes competing in Maine schools right now, they decided to shut off funding for our school nutrition program, the school lunch program, entirely, on which 172,000 Maine schoolchildren rely on for their school meals. That didn’t make any sense," Mills said.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills delivers her State of the State address on Jan. 30, 2024 at the State House in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
She added that the lawsuits against the state were "not rational."
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Bondi announced a Justice Department civil lawsuit against Maine over its refusal to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.
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