President Donald Trump’s nominees consistently engage with Democrats who challenge them in increasingly viral hearing moments that analysts say are not intended as gifts to the media, but red meat for their base.
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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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