During a hearing on Tuesday morning, October 7, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Republicans and Democrats.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and other Republicans asked Bondi softball questions. But the U.S. attorney general became angry and combative when questioned by Senate Democrats, including Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse and Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar.
Bondi often recited MAGA talking points, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown while claiming that President Donald Trump enjoys broad support.
CNN brought on two of its legal analysts during the hearing: Elliott Williams and Alyse Adamson.
Williams noted how evasive Bondi was when answering questions from Democratic senators.
Asked what "stood out" to him about Bondi's testimony, Williams responded, "I think two things. One, there is a level of punchiness or punching back from the attorney general that we really are not used to seeing in hearings. You saw it with (FBI Director) Kash Patel as well. She clearly has, in the binder, literally an opposition file on every one of the Democratic senators and is pointing to things about their states — things about them personally — that might be distractions from the questions they're asking, but are ways to turn the questioning back on to them. That's just not something you often see in the lofty decorum of these hearings. That's one."
Williams continued, "Number two — and I think the way the Democrats or anybody of either party could just get out of the partisan fight here — there's one question she's not being asked. And it occurred to me with her opening statement today where she says: you know, all of this is designed to halt an agenda that won the popular vote and all seven battleground states less than a year ago. She's bringing politics into this. The question for her from anybody ought to be: Madam Attorney General, does the fact that something's popular make it legal, yes or no? And just ask her to get on the record, because all these things about polls and this is what the people wanted — but she's not talking about the legality of them. She's sort of ducking the questions."