A fiery Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, October 7, erupted into chaos as Attorney General Pam Bondi launched personal attacks against Democratic senators during her first oversight hearing since taking office. The contentious exchange set the stage for an extraordinary escalation when President Donald Trump later demanded an investigation into Senator Richard Blumenthal on social media that evening.
During the four-hour hearing, Bondi repeatedly deflected questions about the Justice Department’s politicization by targeting individual Democratic senators with personal attacks. When Blumenthal questioned her about a dropped antitrust merger challenge and her conversations with her former lobbying firm employer, Bondi pivoted to attacking his military service record, declaring that she would not be lectured about integrity by someone who lied about military service to get elected to the Senate.
The attorney general’s combative approach extended beyond Blumenthal. When Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked about Jeffrey Epstein investigation files potentially containing incriminating photos of Trump, Bondi accused Whitehouse of taking money from one of Epstein’s confidants. She called Senator Adam Schiff both a liar and a failed lawyer, demanding he apologize to the president for his work as an impeachment manager during Trump’s first term.
Senator Mazie Hirono faced similar treatment when she inquired about a shut-down investigation into Border Czar Tom Homan. Bondi deflected by criticizing Hirono’s appearance at a demonstration, asking whether her presence at an event where antifa members were also present made her a member of the organization.
The hearing revealed significant changes within the Justice Department under the new administration. Ranking Democrat Dick Durbin noted that approximately 75 percent of the Civil Rights Division has been eliminated, with hundreds of attorneys either fired or departed. The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team were disbanded entirely.
Prior to the hearing, 282 former Justice Department career employees signed a public letter expressing alarm about the administration’s degradation of the department’s work and its assault on public servants. The letter highlighted concerns about the agency’s dramatic shift toward protecting Trump and his allies while targeting political opponents.
Trump’s social media response that evening specifically targeted Blumenthal with the nickname “Da Nang Dick,” referencing a 2010 controversy where the Connecticut senator was found to have misrepresented his military service. Trump accused Blumenthal of lying throughout his political career about being a war hero who faced death-defying dangers in Vietnam’s jungles.
The president’s attack referenced a New York Times investigation from 2010 that revealed Blumenthal had received five draft deferments between 1965 and 1970 before joining the Marine Corps Reserve. However, he never served in active combat in Vietnam, despite previous suggestions throughout his political career that he had fought in the war.
Trump compared Blumenthal to former Representative George Santos, who was imprisoned this year on wire fraud and identity theft charges, claiming that Santos’s lies were insignificant compared to Blumenthal’s military service misrepresentations. Trump declared that “this guy shouldn’t even be in the U.S. Senate.”
When CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins read Trump’s social media post to Blumenthal during a live television interview, the senator responded that the 15-year-old allegation had been rejected by Connecticut voters three times, who have overwhelmingly reelected him. Blumenthal emphasized his honorable discharge as a sergeant from the Marine Corps and acknowledged that he had referred to his service “in Vietnam” on a few occasions rather than “during Vietnam.”
The hearing’s breakdown prompted criticism from former Senator Claire McCaskill, who noted that such behavior from any witness would not have been tolerated during her Senate tenure. She emphasized that there would have been bipartisan efforts to stop any witness behaving like Bondi, regardless of party affiliation.
The Justice Department’s current direction includes expanding federal law enforcement tactics beyond Washington D.C. to other cities, including Chicago. Bondi touted the deployment of federal agents and National Guard troops as incredibly successful, despite neutral observers noting that such actions led to only a two percent increase in arrests in the District.
The unprecedented hearing highlighted the dramatic shift in executive branch relations with Congress, as Republican committee members remained silent throughout Bondi’s attacks on their Democratic colleagues. This represented a significant departure from traditional oversight hearing protocols, where such behavior typically faces bipartisan pushback regardless of the witness’s political affiliation or position.