Pam Bondi hearing goes nuclear: "Loser lawyer!"

• The hearing got testy almost from the start, with Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) telling Bondi: "We ask you politely but firmly, please do not waste one second of our precious time."
• Raskin told Bondi to give Democrats direct answers to their questions and not try to evade or run out the clock.
• "We saw your performance in the Senate, and we're not going to accept that. This isn't a game," he added, referencing a "burn book" Bondi allegedly used to dredge up opposition research against Democrats.

Driving the news: Bondi was asked by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) if she would apologize to a group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors who attended the hearing for "what the Department of Justice has put them through with the absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information."

• Bondi began to answer by referencing her predecessor Merrick Garland, with Jayapal interjecting, "I asked you a specific question that I would like you to answer. ... This is not about anybody that came before you."
• After an extended back and forth in which Bondi and Jayapal repeatedly talked over each other, the attorney general exclaimed, "I'm going to get into the gutter for her theatrics."

Zoom out: The hearing continued to deteriorate from there, with Bondi clashing with nearly every Democrat on the panel with growing hostility.

• Asked by Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) how many alleged Epstein co-conspirators the DOJ is pursuing, he and Bondi got into another heated back and forth, with Bondi declaring, "Oh, OK, here we go with these theatrics."
• Raskin repeatedly interjected to try to ensure Bondi's interruptions didn't eat into Democrats' time for questions, telling Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), "You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch."

"Not on our time, no way," Raskin said. "And I told you about that, attorney general, before we started."

• "You don't tell me anything, you washed-up, loser lawyer!" Bondi shouted back at Raskin. "You're not even a lawyer."
• "Yeah, oh I did tell you because we saw what you did in the Senate!" Raskin yelled back, referring to Bondi's earlier testimony in that chamber.

• "This isn't a circus, this is a hearing," Bondi said later during questioning from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).

The intrigue: Bondi even clashed with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a libertarian-minded conservative who has led the charge to release the Epstein files.

• Massie confronted Bondi over allegations that the DOJ has over-redacted key information in the Epstein files and withheld crucial documents from the public.
• "This guy has Trump derangement syndrome, he needs to - you're a failed politician," Bondi responded.
• She later said of Massie: "He's a hypocrite because he voted against the ban on ... deepfake AI porn. Only two people voted against it, and he was one of them. Hypocrite!"

Perhaps the most heated exchange was with Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), who questioned Bondi about Trump's choice of Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary despite his alleged ties to Epstein.

• As Bondi began to respond by referencing a slain Border Patrol agent, Balint shot back, "For goodness' sake, this is pathetic ... this is not a game, secretary."
• "I'm attorney general," Bondi responded, with Balint quipping, "My apologies, I couldn't tell."
• Bondi later went after Balint on her vote on an antisemitism resolution, with Balint angrily replying, "You want to go there? Are you serious? Talking about antisemitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust! Really? Really?" before storming out of the hearing.