Bondi goes off!

Bondi goes off!

Never in my experience have I seen a congressional hearing more contentious than the one with attorney general Pam (Blondie) Bondi and the senate judiciary committee. Yes I know there have been hearings described as “contentious” before but those were decidedly one sided. Brett Kavanaugh’s comes to mind as does Neil Gorsuch’s. But in those the senators who objected to Gorsuch and Kavanaugh came across as unreasonable mudslinging a-holes while the nominees were on their part painfully graceful. Not so with Bondi. She knew that the democrats on the committee hated her boss and would be hurling insults and talking over her not giving her an opportunity to respond. But unlike the others before her she didn’t take it. She had been criticized for continuing to be the president’s private attorney and politicizing the “Justice” department. She knew she was going to be grilled on the Comey indictment. She also knew that the day before a letter of ex-employees had released a letter critical of her leadership.

So while the republicans were overly polite lobbing layups and not asking any tough questions, Bondi was prepared to insult any democrat senator who would be critical of her role and her relationship with the president. It was though she had had prepared a list with brickbats to hurl at each democrat. When Dick Durbin (D-IL) sharply questioned her about the deployment of national guardsmen to Chicago, Bondi said “You voted to shut down the government, and you’re sitting here. Our law enforcement officers aren’t being paid. They’re out there working to protect you. I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.” Wham!! When Durbin claimed that Trump had cut funding for certain law enforcement programs in Illinois, Bondi said “show me”. “Tell me a specific grant that I turned off in Illinois that would help law enforcement, and I will work with you, but you have not done that.”

Bondi refused to answer questions related to Comey saying that she would not discuss ongoing investigations. She refused to comment on the scathing letter from former employees saying that she would not discuss personnel matters. She refused to address any of the questions regarding Jeffrey Epstein. When California’s Adam Schiff whined “This is supposed to be an oversight hearing where members of Congress can get serious answers to serious questions,” she responded “I think you owe the president an apology for your entire career.” “You know, Schiff, (not “senator”) if you worked for me, you would’ve been fired, because you were censured by Congress for lying!” When Schiff said that “We can stipulate to, you can stipulate to all your personal attacks on the Democratic members of the committee—” Bondi retorted, “Personal attacks? You’ve been attacking my FBI Director, my office, the border czar…’oversight?’ You want your 5 minutes of fame!” Wham (again)! 

When Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) accused her of impropriety, she shot back “I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service. You lied to be elected a US senator.” She said “How dare you? I’m a career prosecutor. Don’t you ever challenge my integrity. Do not question my ability to be fair and impartial as attorney general, or anything regarding my former firm.”

When California’s Alex Padilla asked that order be restored in the hearing she retorted “You know, you want ‘order’ here now, yet you stormed the Director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. You sure didn’t have ‘order’ that day, did you, Senator?” (recalling when Padilla as initially arrested at a homeland security meeting in California). In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii (who is generally cited as one of the dumbest senators) about the closing of an investigation into border czar Tom Homan reportedly taking $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents, Bondi said that no evidence of wrongdoing was found. She then said to the senator from Hawaii “You were also on video outside the White House protesting with a group …where ANTIFA members were. Does that mean you’re a member of ANTIFA?” 

When Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) accused Emil Bove of prosecutorial misconduct during his brief stint as principal associate deputy attorney general, Bondi said “To correct you for one moment, that would be the Honorable Judge Emil J. Bove III to you.” Bove, another one of Trump’s personal attorneys, was accused of recommending that the administration ignore the courts’ orders restraining the president’s aggressive immigration policy. The senate confirmed him to the federal bench 50-49 with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joining all the democrats in voting against him.

If there have been more two-way contentious hearings I don’t know of any. I don’t ever recall seeing this much contempt and hostility displayed in Washington. It is obvious that both sides really loathe and dare I say hate each other. But it is clear that this administration is going to aggressively defend its actions and not let the democrats dictate the narrative. 

By the way, what do you call it when Pam Bondi walks into a room trailed by Karoline Leavitt? The blond leading the blond.