Evan Perez, CNN's senior justice correspondent, was visibly taken aback by Senate Democrats on Tuesday, who he said appeared "unprepared" for the performance Attorney General Pam Bondi gave before the Judiciary Committee.
Bondi was grilled by Democratic senators during a hearing on Tuesday about President Donald Trump's efforts to release the Epstein files and the administration's deployment of federal troops to Democratic-run states and cities. Bondi appeared combative and frequently yelled at Senators who asked questions that she found disrespectful.
"She came there with a mission, and a lot of it was in those binders that she had there," Perez said. "She had one-liners that seemed tailored for every specific Democratic senator. She knew what they were going to come after her for, and she took it and redirected it straight back at them."
"And you saw a lot of them seem completely unprepared for this, for what was coming, despite the fact that we saw a similar performance a couple of weeks ago from Kash Patel, the FBI director," he continued. "So, it's kind of remarkable to me to watch that hearing unfold and to see these Democratic senators not seem to know what the playbook."
Patel attended a hearing last month where Senators asked him similar questions. He at times seemed to forget pertinent FBI cases, like Dylan Roof's mass shooting of a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and became combative with lawmakers who questioned Trump's actions.
