Panelists on "CNN This Morning" burst into laughter when host Audie Cornish brought up a startling response by Attorney General Pam Bondi during her contentious congressional hearing.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) asked the attorney general Wednesday how many of Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators she had indicted, which set off an eruption from her, and Bondi loudly changed the subject when he and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) attempted to redirect her.
“The DOW is over 50,000 dollars," Bondi fumed. "I don’t know why you’re laughing. You’re a great stock trader, as I hear, Raskin."
Cornish brought up that exchange Friday morning in the context of President Donald Trump's economic record.
"I want to talk about the price of Trump's prosperity, which isturning out to come at a cost to Americans because we have beenpaying the tariffs, not foreigncountries," Cornish said. "That's according toa new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whichfinds we paid a whopping 90 percent ofimport taxes last year. It costU.S. households an average taxincrease of about $1,000. The National Bureau of Economic Research and CBO had similarnumbers. I wanted to talk aboutthis because there was this kindof head scratching moment in the Pam Bondi hearings, where Ithink it was Jerry Nadler wastrying to ask her question aboutthe things she was there for,something legal, and the Epsteinfiles."
She played a video clip of Bondi's outburst, and New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Vox podcaster Noel King started laughing.
"Why are you laughing?" Cornish said.
"Because she's head of the Justice Department," Garcia-Navarro replied, shrugging.
"So the internet responded hilariously," Cornish continued. "Therewere people that are like, 'Oh, your girl is cheating on you, say why are we talking aboutthis? The Dow.' One joke hit mewhere it was like, 'My rent islate, but what about the Dow?Why are we talking about this?'"