Congressional hearings have never been anyone’s favorite pastime. Not for the members of Congress who sit through them, not for the staffers who prep them, and certainly not for the witnesses called to testify.
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When I worked on the Hill, my boss chaired the Labor Standards Subcommittee. He once presided over high-level hearings on raising the minimum wage, legislation that ultimately passed and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1989. That was a proud moment. It’s not easy to get a bill to the Oval Office and into law.
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Back in those days, those hearings were mostly perfunctory. Most questions were given to witnesses in advance, and witnesses came armed with polite, deferential answers. Not always what members wanted to hear, pro or con, but at least you knew what you were getting.
And deference was the key word. Whether it was an administration official or a corporate executive, the standing rule was simple, which was don’t ruffle feathers, don’t get on the committee’s bad side, and above all, don’t lie.
I carried that same advice into my corporate PR roles, where I helped prep a couple of executives for testimony. My golden rule was always the same, show deference. Because Congress controls the purse strings, the laws, and the outcome of why you’re there in the first place. Thus, angering Congress can lead to endless headaches.
The old saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. In congressional testimony, honey used to be standard.
That era, however, is long gone. Really long gone. Sure, there were fiery hearings in the past. And ones that were utterly embarrassing, think Wisconsin Republican Sen.Joseph McCarthy's communist hearings.
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Yes, I’m a Democrat, but it’s been pretty clear that the fireworks usually are shot off from the Republican side of the river, especially now. Their behavior is abominable.
The decline of decorum really began to take off when Trumpworld operatives started treating congressional hearings as cable-news audition tapes instead of serious exercises in accountability. Or even more specific, a “look at me, look at me” plea for attention to an audience of one, Donald Trump.
I’ve already written about the disgraceful display of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who turned his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee into a circus of griping, groaning like a frog, and outright lying. He was a jerk.
But FBI Director Kash Patel has managed to out-jerk even him.
Patel’s appearances before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees this week weren’t just combative. No, they went way beyond that. They were disgustingly contemptuous.
Patel’s Senate hearing was a spectacle of bluster and hostility. Instead of showing the gravity expected of an FBI director, he lashed out at lawmakers, bristled at oversight (it’s the senators’ job to provide oversight of the FBI), and mouthed partisan sound bites for his Dear Leader instead of real answers.
His temper boiled over in a heated exchange with Sen. Cory Booker, who pressed him on his politicized leadership and reckless claims. Patel snapped back, calling Booker an “embarrassment,” insisting “it is my time” and “I’m not going anywhere” in a shouting match that left both men talking over one another.
Rather than reassuring the country that the bureau is in steady hands, Patel revealed himself as a hothead more interested in scoring points than serving the public.
In his House testimony, his exchange with Rep. Jamie Raskin, a constitutional law professor, was particularly galling. “Do you have any idea how the law works?” Patel sneered, firing back at Raskin as though he were the one conducting the hearing. It was the behavior not of a distinguished FBI director but of a spoiled, obnoxious frat boy.
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Our FBI directors have traditionally been serious men of law, justice, and public service. From Robert Mueller to William Webster, they embodied an agency known for its deadly seriousness. Even Chris Wray, who was once a partisan Republican firebrand, understood the gravity of the position once he assumed the office.
Patel is something else entirely. He’s a woefully inept neophyte, a partisan hack, a bloviating showboat who mistakes arrogance for authority. He is a jerkoff in every sense of the word, pompous, combative, and untrustworthy. That someone of his temperament is leading the FBI is a stain on the institution and a danger to the country.
How can our allies trust him? Intelligence officials across the world must be texting each other “WTF” and “keep clear of him.” How can adversaries take him seriously when his behavior signals instability and ego-driven fragility? Worse, how can his own agents believe he has their backs?
Patel has already fired respected career officials, including one whose wife was dying of cancer. It proves that Patel has no heart and no “sense of decency,” if I can borrow a line from a noteworthy Senate hearing from 1954.
He has gutted the ranks of seasoned FBI professionals and driven morale into the ground. An agency already under pressure cannot survive this level of internal sabotage. The FBI is no place for an anger management program, and yet Patel treats the directorship like his personal therapy session.
Congressional hearings aren’t supposed to be love fests, but they are supposed to be serious. They demand respect, even begrudging respect. What Patel showed was contempt. If this is how he handles lawmakers in public, imagine his demeanor in a closed-door crisis meeting, when lives and national security might be on the line.
His temperament is offensive, his demeanor pathetic, and his narcissism dangerous. He is an empty barrel making the most noise, and every day he remains at the helm of the FBI, America is in greater peril. No one likes a jerkoff. Least of all when the jerkoff is the director of the FBI.
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