If you have, you can be excused if you thought that it was a staged performance, or an opening act straight out of the Theatre of the Absurd.
Watching Attorney General Pam Bondi testify before the House Judiciary Committee today (Wednesday) was like watching an old West shootout.
The Republican chairman, Jim Jordan, let Bondi run roughshod over every Democratic member of the committee, often letting her talk right over the person questioning her.
The hearing was a battle of truth versus lies. Bondi repeatedly lied, under oath, and was so defiant at times I thought she was going to fly out of her chair like the Wicked Witch of the East. When she didn't want to directly answer a question, she replied with personal attacks against the person and tried to flip the narrative.
Meanwhile chairman Jordan walked the fence trying to calm Bondi down at times, but he also gave her free reign again and again. Because the Republicans in the committee follow Trump's agenda they all acted like simpering little sycophants and heaped praise on Bondi who was acting like a spoiled child.
It's hard watching people lie, and even harder watching them get away with it because in the end of the day we all know Bondi will not be stopped despite the evidence of her crimes being revealed in an open hearing.
There was a time in our history when House and Senate hearings actually exposed corruption in a bipartisan way. Members didn't insult their colleagues throughout the proceedings and the person being interviewed wasn't allowed too defiantly lash out every time they were asked a simple question.
Once upon a time Congressional committees didn't tolerate such defiance and actually held the person in criminal contempt for their actions. Those days are long gone.
Thanks to a Republican majority in the House and Senate all congressional hearings now are just acts from a scripted play by the director in the Oval Office.
Frankly I don't know why the Republican majority is even holding these hearings. Nothing is ever solved. Little, or no action, is ever taken. The whole exercise seems meaningless.
I watched the hearing live on the Associated Press platform online. There were 31,000 other viewers watching the play unfold. We only represented a tiny fraction of the entire population.
As for the rest of the country people will go to their silos and watch snippets of the hearing - each pushing a different interruption of what actually occurred.
The result? Chaos. Misinformation. Polarization. Nothing good for the nation.
As it Stands, on the positive side if you like soap operas these hearings are for you.
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