A former federal prosecutor highlighted some of what he said were unusual tactics Attorney General Pam Bondi employed against Democratic senators in a combative hearing.
President Donald Trump's attorney general appeared Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she appeared to be reading from a sheet of opposition research to attack Democrats on personal and political levels. Politico's Ankush Khardori said she had stepped up her combative stance.
"I'm not surprised, she has been doing this allyear," Khardori, a former Justice Department prosecutor, told CNN. "She did this inthe oversight hearings on theDOJ's budget. All of thisactually, this is worse. She'smore aggressive, I think,because the DOJ is under morepublic pressure.
"She's justputting up more of a show, butit was the same stuff. Like, shewill respond to criticism from Democratic members with vitrioland non-sequiturs, right. Sosay, well, why don't you careabout this crime that happenedon this date? And she pulls fromthese notes and stuff that shehas in her little book.
"At thesame time, she goes aroundaccusing other people of readingfrom scripts. A little ridiculous."
"This is worse thanI've seen," Khardori added. "I'm not surprisedthat the core elements are stillthere, an intensely partisan attorney general, someone whoseobjective seems to be first andforemost to serve the interestsof President Trump and the Republican Party, and to really,really see herself as servingone man who she effusivelypraises at every availableturn, the president and the interests of the Republican Party. I mean, this is anextraordinary shift and change in just eight months in thepublic profile and posture ofthe nation's top lawenforcement official."