CNN's Kevin Liptak revealed the White House was unimpressed with Attorney General Pam Bondi's fiery performance before the House Judiciary Committee.
President Donald Trump's attorney general lashed out at Democrats, hurling insults and highlighting various crimes back in their home districts that she pulled from a tabbed binder, and refused to answer questions about the Jeffrey Epstein case, but CNN's senior White House correspondent revealed what he's hearing about her from insiders.
"It was almost a Trumpian appearance from theattorney general," Liptak told "CNN News Central," "and I thinkthat particular aspect of itwill probably have gone overfairly well. But, listen, the White House has made no secretthat it is less than thrilled athow the attorney general hashandled the Epstein matter. Youknow, Susie Wiles, the chief ofstaff, who is ostensibly one of Pam Bondi's friends, said thatshe had whiffed the entire thing,which I think sort of embodieshow the West Wing has viewedthis generally, and so when shewent out into that hearing roomto engage in this really sort ofbitter theatrical appearance, Ithink it did reflect an attorneygeneral very much under fire forhow she's handling all of this."
"You know, she came armed withthese personalized insults foranyone who asked about anythingshe didn't want to talk about,which was virtually anythinghaving to do with Jeffrey Epstein," Liptak added. "She really shrugged offquestions from Democrats aboutwhy none of Epstein'sco-conspirators had beenindicted. She blamed that on the Biden administration. She refusedto apologize to Epstein'svictims, who were sitting in thevery room where she was, for howsome of these files had beenredacted or not redacted, as thecase may be showing to thegeneral public some of thevictims names and faces. Thatwas the line of questioning from [Rep.] Thomas Massie (R-KY), who was kind ofthe only Republican in the roomto ask her about any of this."
Bondi lashed out when Massie challenged her on billionaire Les Wexner's name being redacted, calling the Kentucky Republican a “failed politician” who suffered from “Trump derangement syndrome," and Liptak noticed that GOP lawmakers were unwilling to touch the topic or defend the attorney general.
"So Massie was really the only Republican to bring this matterup," Liptak said. "It was interesting to seehow his fellow Republicanshandled all of this they reallytried to steer this hearing awayfrom the Epstein matter. Theyreally didn't make any attemptto defend how Bondi had handledall of this. At the end of theday, this is really kind of amatter of her own making.Remember some months ago, shesaid that the Epstein files weresitting on her desk, and a lotof ways she still contendingwith that statement."