House Democrats think Pam Bondi just helped them in the midterms

Democrats walked into the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi Wednesday expecting her to be nonresponsive and combative. They walked out with what they believe to be a more compelling argument for winning back the majority.

For four hours, the nation’s top law enforcement officer largely refused to answer questions from Democrats about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

In some moments, Bondi deflected queries by asking members if they cared about crimes or violence in their districts, flipping through a massive binder of research Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) derided as her “burn book.”

In others, she responded by lashing out at committee members in personal terms, at one point calling Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the panel’s top Democrat, a “washed-up, loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”

“If we had the power, we would subpoena her, and we would require her to answer our questions,” Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, told reporters following the hearing. “So that is the importance of who’s going to be in control in Congress after the 2026 elections because we would like the subpoena power, so we don’t see this kind of phenomenal disrespect of Congress.”

Even if Democrats reclaim the gavel of the House Judiciary Committee, Bondi could still drag her feet. And her aggressive posture in attacking lawmakers during a regular oversight hearing of the DOJ — the purported purpose of Wednesday’s proceedings — suggests she will not cooperate easily.

“The questions I’ve asked … are not trick questions, they’re not gotcha questions, they’re actually basic questions about how the Department of Justice functions,” said Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), who said the hearing lacked “some modicum of resembling something that has typically been fairly conventional: an oversight hearing of the Department of Justice.”

The only relevant, new information that Bondi provided to lawmakers was in response to a question from a Republican, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who asked whether people would be indicted for ties to Epstein’s crimes.

Bondi said vaguely, “We have pending investigations in our office.” It was not clear whether she was referring to investigations into prominent Democratic officials, which had come after a directive from President Donald Trump.

Still, Democrats think Bondi’s hostile performance throughout the hearing will help their cause in the midterms as they make a case for a return to normalcy. At times, even House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan had to interrupt to ensure lawmakers could ask their questions.

“I can’t believe that the Attorney General of the United States of America would appear before hundreds of millions of Americans this way and then have a book of insults that she’s ready to lob at members of Congress … we’ve got to get back to the America that we had before they dragged us down into the mud like this,” Raskin said following the hearing.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a member of the Judiciary panel, also said the events Wednesday boost Democrats’ case in the midterm elections.

“She did an excellent job in appealing to Donald Trump, and it was [for] … one person audience: Donald Trump,” said Cohen, adding that the hearing “gave the public some information about what the Justice Department’s not doing correctly.”

In many ways, Bondi played directly into Democrats’ hands, and not only by trash-talking lawmakers whose questions she didn’t want to answer — similar to the maneuver she deployed when testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee back in October.

Democrats coordinated with the victims of Epstein’s abuse so that roughly ten could sit in the hearing room behind Bondi. Lawmakers offered her the opportunity to engage with them directly and apologize for the department’s conduct or meet with the victims.

Bondi, in her opening remarks, said she was “deeply sorry for what any victim … has been through” but otherwise refused to take the bait. At one point, when Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) asked Bondi to apologize to the victims for what the Justice Department has put them through, Bondi declined: “I’m not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics.”

Democrats also headed into Wednesday’s high-profile hearing prepared to draw a contrast between their interest in asking hard questions about events that have captured the public’s attention — namely justice for Epstein’s victims and accountability for any potential accomplices — and Republicans’ more politically accommodating approach.

Jordan said on Wednesday evening he thought Bondi “handled herself very well” and expected Democrats to be aggressive. At one point, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) yelled at Bondi to be “quiet” as he fought to be heard, while Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.) called her “one of the worst” attorneys generals “in our history.”

“I think it went great — I mean, the bottom line is … under the leadership of the Attorney General and the president, crime is down,” Jordan said.

The only Republican who challenged Bondi was Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who led the charge to release the Epstein files in DOJ’s possession and picked enough fights with Trump that the president and his allies are now seeking to oust him in a primary.

Accusing Bondi of failing to comply with the law he shepherded through Congress with sloppy redactions — or lack thereof — of both victims and the name of one powerful man in the Epstein files, Bondi called Massie a “failed politician” and a “hypocrite.”

Massie, in an interview Wednesday evening, said it took Bondi “a long time to find my insult card.”

“I think she was crashing the whole time,” he said. “There was no effort really to answer any of the difficult questions.”

Asked about being the only Republican to ask a tough question at the hearing, Massie replied, “Nobody wants to get on the bad side of Trump … That’ll change once we get past our primaries.”