Dems' hearing meltdowns a play to the base, analysts say, as Trump noms keep pushing back in viral moments
The media understands Democrats have little power on a Republican-dominated Capitol Hill, according to Bill D'Agostino, senior analyst for the Media Research Center.
"If you were to watch any given night on CNN or MSNBC evening shows, you'll find a couple of panel discussion segments that are basically just Democratic strategists and the host talking shop," he told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview.
"The discussion has focused almost entirely on how can Democrats show their voters that they're trying to fight this, that they're trying to make a difference, that they're resisting the Trump administration."
Partisan politics has come to a point, D'Agostino suggested, where constituents send Democrats to Washington to stop Trump at every turn, regardless of ideological alignment or differences.
"Obviously, as the minority party, there's not much action they can actually offer. So instead, their political futures basically rest on how hard they're trying to stop Trump."
One of the most contentious exchanges occurred during FBI Director Kash Patel's January confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., dug into granular language used by Patel after the Capitol riot in regard to a song released by inmates that featured Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Patel told Schiff he stood by prior testimony that he had had nothing to do with the recording of the song, while the Burbank Democrat grilled him over a comment to former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon about "what we thought would be cool… captur[ing] audio" for the song.
Schiff asked why he said that, and Patel incredulously shot back "that's why it says, 'we' [as opposed to I] as you highlighted." Patel denied participating in the digitizing of the song.
The exchange was compared to former President Bill Clinton's grammatical comments about the word "is" during the Monica Lewinsky affair.
During Attorney General Pam Bondi's confirmation, Schiff was at the fore again, demanding she disclose whether she might prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith over his Trump probe. Bondi repeatedly said she wouldn't answer hypothetical, and dinged Schiff in response for focusing on Smith while his own California is rife with violent crime.
Bondi also snapped back at Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., after a grilling on the Fourteenth Amendment and citizenship, saying, "I'm not here to do your homework and study for you."
During Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., delved into Hegseth's multiple marriages and allegations of untoward behavior.
Kaine said Hegseth had "casually cheated" on a former wife shortly after his daughter Gwendolyn was born. Hegseth countered that the situation had been investigated and that Kaine's claims were "false charges."
"You've admitted that you had sex at that hotel in October 2017. You said it was consensual, isn't that correct?" Kaine went on, probing further.
Hegseth also made headlines when he interrupted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., mid-sentence as she criticized the revolving door among military generals, Pentagon chiefs, and defense contractors.
"I'm not a general, senator," he said, prompting laughter in the gallery.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also had several similar moments, including when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., opened his remarks by speaking about the measles and telling the nominee bluntly, "You frighten people."
Kennedy also rejected a line of questioning from Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., claiming that he had compared the Atlanta-based CDC's work to Nazi death camps.
Outbursts and grilling continued in recent oversight hearings, including this past week when Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., got into a tiff with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about Salvadoran deportee Kilmar Garcia. At one point, Swalwell informed Noem he has a "bull---t detector."
Mark Bednar, a former top aide to ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was one of many "sherpas" tasked with guiding nominees through the confirmation process, including meetings with senators.
Bednar assisted EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin through his process, which, by comparison to others, was mild.
Zeldin's hearing actually included some bipartisan joking – like when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., riffed that Zeldin's cell phone rang unexpectedly because "the fossil fuel industry" was calling him after a line of questioning on the matter.
Bednar recounted a loud protester in the hall who remained for some time, offering conjecture that the disruptive woman hadn't yet crossed any legal lines like protesters actually inside hearing rooms like during Kennedy's confirmation.
But Bednar said that many of the other nominees faced Democrats who would rather make a show than "be diplomatic and deliberative over policy."
"I think that is a big indicator to me that the left has no substantive answers for rebuttals to President Trump's agenda or Republicans' agenda. And that, to me, is a sign that if you're a Republican, that that's encouraging -- the public's on your side, and the far left has been unable to formulate a rational, level-headed response, much less not even be able to articulate one."
Fox News Digital reached out to other sherpas but did not hear back.
Meanwhile, Bednar said that it has been interesting to watch the hearing disruptions evolve into larger scenes with similarly little substance or long-term gain.
"I thought I was very rich and pun intended, that Cory Booker delivered a record-breaking speech that the Democrats were basically just grasping for anything to kind of count as a win, even though it didn't really amount to anything," he said, after the New Jersey Democrat held an unofficial filibuster – as there was no legislation being held up – for more than a day.
That speech, however, precipitated several fundraising emails from the left, Bednar said, which bolstered D'Agostino's claim about playing to the base.
"If it's a session day in D.C., and Republicans are in charge, there's going to be liberal agitators protesting; as the sky is blue," Bednar quipped.
Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Darren Walker's new book is still hopeful despite growing inequality as he leaves Ford Foundation
NEW YORK (AP) — Darren Walker needed to be convinced of his new book's relevance. The outgoing Ford Foundation president feared that 'The Idea of America," set to publish in September just before he leaves the nonprofit, risked feeling disjointed. In more than eight dozen selected texts dating back to 2013, he reflects on everything from his path as a Black, gay child from rural Texas into the halls of premiere American philanthropies to his solutions for reversing the deepening inequality of our 'new Gilded Age." 'To be clear, not everything I said and wrote over the last 12 years is worthy of publication," Walker said. A point of great regret, he said, is that he finds American democracy weaker now than when he started. Younger generations lack access to the same 'mobility escalator' that he rode from poverty. And he described President Donald Trump's administration's first six months as 'disorienting' for a sector he successfully pushed to adopt more ambitious and just funding practices. Despite that bleak picture, Walker embraces the characterization of his upcoming collection as patriotic. 'My own journey in America leaves me no option but to be hopeful because I have lived in a country that believed in me,' he said. Walker recently discussed his tenure and the book's call for shared values with the Associated Press inside his Ford Foundation office — where an enlarged picture of a Black child taken by Malian portrait photographer Seydou Keïta still hangs, one of many underrepresented artists' works that populated the headquarters under his leadership. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Q: Upon becoming Ford Foundation's president, you suggested that 'our most important job is to work ourselves out of a job' — a 2013 statement you include in the book. How would you grade your efforts? A: The past 12 years have been both exhilarating and exhausting. Exhilarating because there's never been a more exciting time to be in philanthropy. And exhausting because the political, socioeconomic dynamics of the last 12 years are very worrisome for our future. Philanthropy can play a role in helping to strengthen our democracy. But philanthropy can't save America. I would probably give myself a B or a B-. I don't think where we are as a nation after 12 years is where any country would want to be that had its eye on the future and the strength of our democracy. Q: Is there anything you would do differently? A: In 2013 and those early speeches, I identified growing inequality as a challenge to the strength of our democracy. And a part of that manifestation of growing inequality was a growing sense of disaffection — from our politics, our institutions, our economy. For the first time, a decade or so ago, we had clear evidence that working class white households were increasingly downwardly mobile economically. And the implications for that are deep and profound for our politics and our democracy. We started a program on increasing our investments in rural America, acknowledging some of the challenges, for example, of the trends around the impacts of the opioid epidemic on those communities. I underestimated the depth and the collective sense of being left behind. Even though I think I was correct in diagnosing the problem, I think the strategy to respond was not focused enough on this population. Q: Many people credit you for using Ford Foundation's endowment to increase grantmaking during the pandemic. Is that sort of creativity needed now with the new strains faced by the philanthropic sector? A: One of the disappointments I have with philanthropy is that we don't take enough risk. We don't innovate given the potential to use our capital to provide solutions. I do think that, in the coming years, foundations are going to be challenged to step up and lean in in ways that we haven't since the pandemic. The 5% payout is treated as a ceiling by a lot of foundations and, in fact, it's a floor. During these times when there's so much accumulated wealth sitting in our endowments, the public rightly is asking questions about just how much of that we are using and towards what end. Q: Where do you derive this sense of 'radical hope' at the end of your book? A: As a poor kid in rural Texas, I was given the license to dream. In fact, I was encouraged to dream and to believe that it will be possible for me to overcome the circumstances into which I was born. I've lived on both sides of the line of inequality. And I feel incredibly fortunate. But I'm also sobered by the gap between the privileged and the poor and the working-class people in America. It has widened during my lifetime and that is something I worry a lot about. But I'm hopeful because I think about my ancestors who were Black, enslaved, poor. African Americans, Black people, Black Americans have been hopeful for 400 years and have been patriots in believing in the possibility that this country would realize its aspirations for equality and justice. That has been our North Star. Q: Heather Gerken, the dean of Yale's law school, was recently named as your successor. Why is it important to have a leader with a legal background and an expertise in democracy? A: She is the perfect leader for Ford because she understands that at the center of our work must be a belief in democracy and democratic institutions and processes. She is also a bridge builder. She is a coalition builder. She's bold and courageous. I'm just thrilled about her taking the helm of the Ford Foundation. It is a signal from the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees that we are going to double down on our investment and our commitment to strengthening, protecting and promoting democracy. Q: Youtold AP last year that, when you exited this building for the last time, you'd only be looking forward. What does 'forward' mean to you now? A: I have resolved that I don't want to be a president or a CEO. I don't need to be a president of CEO. I think leaders can become nostalgic and hold onto their own history. Now there's no doubt, I know, that my obituary is going to say, 'Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation." That's the most important job I'll ever have. But hopefully I'll be able to add some more important work to that. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit Solve the daily Crossword
Washington Post
10 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Darren Walker's new book is still hopeful despite growing inequality as he leaves Ford Foundation
NEW YORK — Darren Walker needed to be convinced of his new book's relevance. The outgoing Ford Foundation president feared that 'The Idea of America,' set to publish in September just before he leaves the nonprofit, risked feeling disjointed. In more than eight dozen selected texts dating back to 2013, he reflects on everything from his path as a Black, gay child from rural Texas into the halls of premiere American philanthropies to his solutions for reversing the deepening inequality of our 'new Gilded Age.'
Fox News
10 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump 'disappointed' in Putin, says he'll reduce 50-day deadline
President Donald Trump on Monday said he was "very disappointed" in Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he will "reduce" the original 50-day deadline he set earlier this month to 10-12 days from today. "I'm going to make a new deadline, of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today," Trump told reporters from Scotland. "There's no reason for waiting. It was 50 days, I wanted to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made." Trump originally set a 50-day deadline for Putin to reach a peace deal on July 14 while meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Washington, D.C. But by moving up the deadline to 12-days from Monday, he cut the overall end date in half. "I'm disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him," Trump said Monday. "So we're going to have to look, and I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer." Trump's comments came just hours after Russia unleashed more than 300 drones and missiles across Ukraine, prompting not only Kyiv to scramble its Air Force, but Poland's Operational Command said it too had deployed fighter jets to the sky. "I would have said five times we would have had a deal. I've spoken to President Putin a lot," Trump told reporters, echoing his previous frustration that speaking with Putin has yielded little to no results. "But we've had discussions…we thought we had that settled numerous times. "And then President Putin goes out and such, launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street," Trump continued. "And I say, that's not the way to do it. So we'll see what happens." No deaths have yet been confirmed from the early morning strikes that hit the capital city of Kyiv wounding at least five, including a two-year-old girl. The other strikes targeted the Khmelnytskyi region to the west of Kyiv and the Kirovohrad region to the south of Kyiv. Additional casualties have not been reported. The Ukrainian Air Force reported on Monday that 324 Shahed-type attack and decoy drones were fired along with four Kh-101 cruise missiles and three Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles. Ukraine's air defense systems reportedly shot down 309 UAVs and two Kh-101 cruise missiles. Two of the cruise missiles and 15 drones hit targets in three locations, while three of the Kinzhal missiles apparently failed to reach their intended targets. "Our unmanned defenses delivered strong results against 'Shaheds' – dozens of Russian drones were shot down. Several missiles were also intercepted overnight," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on X. "Unfortunately, not all of them – there were also hits. "But we are constantly strengthening Ukraine's air shield, and it is vital to maintain clear understanding among partners of how exactly they can help," he added. "Step by step, we are closing the funding gap for drone production, and I will be holding new talks with partners on this task later this week."
