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The overwhelming media consensus is that Pam Bondi turned in an atrocious performance at a House hearing in which she hurled personal insults at Democratic lawmakers.

And sure, she succeeded in virtually avoiding questions by repeating, like a mantra, "Merrick Garland" – as in, why did they never question Joe Biden’s AG about the Jeffrey Epstein case? (Some members conceded she had a point but couldn’t get an answer about her own tenure.)

Still, the Democrats played a major role in the meltdown as well. Members repeatedly used four minutes out of their allotted five to make angry speeches, then clashed with Bondi as she tried to deflect their questions while the final seconds ticked off.

In short, they treated the proceedings as a circus on steroids as well – yet were largely let off the hook by the mainstream media.

BONDI HEARING DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS OF SHOUTS AS AG ACCUSES TOP DEMOCRATS OF ‘THEATRICS’

Everyone looked awful. And yet, in this hyperpartisan age, neither side believed that substantive information would be unearthed. The goal these days is to create a viral moment that can be replayed on television, online, or on videos they post on social media and YouTube.

No one loves the mortal combat more than cable news producers, who milk these moments for days as anchors, hosts and guests debate them – just as the endless Bad Bunny arguments were finally starting to fade.

Despite the gravity of the subject – a child sex-trafficking ring led by a man who traded favors with supposedly upstanding members of the establishment, aided by his enabler Ghislaine Maxwell – the substance was all but lost in the shouting.

The Democrats got to call Bondi a liar and the perpetrator of a grand coverup who should immediately resign. The attorney general got to call Jamie Raskin a "washed-up loser" and Thomas Massie, a Republican, as suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome." She said of Pramila Jayapal, "I’m not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics."

When Jerry Nadler delivered a lengthy lecture about how many people have been prosecuted in the Epstein probe, he only had time to answer his own question: Zero. 

Perhaps the lowest moment came when Rep. Becca Balint, a Jewish Democrat who has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, had her turn. 

"With this antisemitic culture," Bondi said, "she voted against a resolution condemning –"

The Vermont congresswoman cut her off. "You're talking to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust," Balint proclaimed, storming out of the room.

TOP 5 MOMENTS AS BONDI CLASHES WITH DEMOCRATS IN FIERY HOUSE HEARING

In a few high-decibel hours, we got a master class in screechy partisanship by both sides. But there’s a long history here, even dating to the days when the two parties weren’t devoted to the politics of personal destruction. 

Theater has always been embedded as an art form. At the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings, a deputy assistant to Richard Nixon, Alexander Butterfield, revealed the existence of a White House taping system, as top committee officials knew he would, completely transforming the investigation and leading to the panel’s bipartisan vote to impeach the president.

The 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, about accusations of Communist infiltration, reached their peak when Army counsel Joseph Welch confronted Joe McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" This was at the dawn of the television age – and led to the censure of the reckless Wisconsin senator.

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Bondi was playing to an audience of one. She said more than once that Donald Trump was the greatest president in history. And he posted on Truth Social that she had been "fantastic" against the "Trump Deranged Radical Left Lunatics" and "SLIMEBALL Democrats."

What seemed especially absurd was when Bondi declared that the Epstein uproar was designed to steer attention from the Dow breaking 50,000.

For all the histrionics, it was a silent moment that carried the day.

Eleven of Epstein’s victims were seated in the audience, behind the witness. Bondi, who has never met with them, said her Justice Department was happy to immediately take meetings with any of them.  

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE'S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY'S HOTTEST STORIES

That’s when Jayapal – and this was a bit of a stunt – asked Bondi to turn around and apologize to these women, whose lives had been devastated by Epstein when they were girls. Pam Bondi ignored the offer.

The Democrat asked the women to stand and raise their hands if they had not yet been able to meet with the Trump Justice Department. Every one of them stood up, sending an unmistakable message.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday asked a court to revoke the Israeli citizenship of two Palestinian men convicted of terrorism offenses.

The effort appears to be the first use of a law enacted three years ago allowing the revocation of citizenship and subsequent deportation of Palestinian citizens who were convicted of certain violent crimes such as terrorism and received financial support from the Palestinian Authority as a reward.

Netanyahu filed court documents arguing that the severity of the crimes, along with payments the men reportedly received from a Palestinian Authority fund, justify pulling their citizenship and expelling them from the Jewish State.

The prime minister has long claimed the fund rewards violence, including attacks on civilians.

TRUMP SAYS HE WOULD ‘ABSOLUTELY’ REVOKE CITIZENSHIP FROM NATURALIZED CRIMINALS — IF HE HAS THE AUTHORITY

But Palestinian officials have contended that it is a safety net for the broad cross‑section of society with family members in Israeli detention. They also accused Netanyahu of focusing on the relatively small number of beneficiaries who carried out the attacks.

When the law passed, critics argued that it allowed Israel's legal system to treat Jewish and Palestinian people differently. Civil rights groups said that basing a deportation law on Palestinian Authority payments effectively excluded Jewish Israelis, including settlers convicted of attacks against Palestinians, from the threat of losing their citizenship, as the statute targeted people of a certain race.

Netanyahu said this week that the government launched proceedings against the two men and that similar cases would be brought in the future.

TRUMP MEETS NETANYAHU, SAYS HE WANTS IRAN DEAL BUT REMINDS TEHRAN OF 'MIDNIGHT HAMMER' OPERATION

Israeli officials said Mohamad Ahmad, a citizen from Jerusalem, was convicted of "offenses that constitute an act of terrorism and receiving funds in connection with terrorism." He allegedly received payment after he was sentenced in 2002 for a shooting attack and served 23 years before his release in 2024.

Mohammed Ahmad Hussein al-Halsi was sentenced in 2016 to 18 years behind bars for stabbing elderly women. He also allegedly received payments while in prison.

Ahmad would be deported immediately, while al-Halsi would be removed upon his release, as individuals are subject to removal to Gaza once their sentences are complete under the 2023 law, which applies to citizens or permanent residents convicted of "committing an act that constitutes a breach of loyalty to the State of Israel," including terrorism.

The general director of Israel's Adalah legal center, Hassan Jabareen, called the move to use the law "a cynical propaganda move" by Netanyahu. He said stripping citizenship violated the most basic principles of the rule of law, including by acting against people who have completed prison sentences.

"The Israeli government is attempting to strip individuals of the very foundation through which all rights are protected, their nationality," he said on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The USS Gerald R. Ford has been ordered to move from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East, as President Donald Trump weighs whether to take military action against Iran amid tensions in the region, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.

This will put two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in the Middle East more than two weeks ago.

The USS Ford, which set out on deployment in June 2025, was sent from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean last fall as the administration established a significant military presence ahead of the operation to strike Venezuela and capture its president, Nicolás Maduro.

SCOTT BESSENT SAYS IRAN UNDERSTANDS 'BRUTE FORCE' AS TRUMP WEIGHS OPTIONS AMID NUCLEAR STANDOFF

On Thursday, Trump warned Iran that failure to reach a deal with the U.S. regarding its nuclear program would be "very traumatic" after the two countries held indirect talks in Oman last week.

"It should happen quickly. They should agree very quickly," he told reporters.

Trump held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and said he insisted to the Israeli leader that negotiations with Iran must continue.

TRUMP SAYS IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER KHAMENEI SHOULD BE 'VERY WORRIED' AMID TENSIONS

Netanyahu is calling on the Trump administration to push Tehran to scale back its ballistic missile program and end its support for terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as part of any deal.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Former President Joe Biden will be feted by South Carolina Democrats later this month, to mark the sixth anniversary of his Palmetto State primary landslide, a comeback victory that rocketed Biden to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and later the White House.

But with many Democrats still smarting from their party's major 2024 election setbacks, fueled in part by a very unpopular Biden presidency and the then-president's dropping his re-election bid amid serious questions about his physical and mental abilities following a disastrous debate with now-President Donald Trump, the South Carolina celebration appears to be an outlier.

As they seek office in gubernatorial and congressional races in this year's elections, nine candidates who served in the Biden administration appear to be keeping their distance from the former president, according to a new report from Axios.

POTENTIAL 2028 CONTENDER SHAPIRO KNOCKS BIDEN'S RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

Biden ended his presidency with approval and favorable ratings well underwater, and the 13 months since he left office have not apparently healed the damage done to his standing among those in his own party.

"Biden remains a liability," a veteran Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital. "Being associated with the Biden administration is doing some candidates no favors as they run this year."

HOUSE DEMOCRATS ON OFFENSE: EXPAND THE 2026 MAP

That's a switch from the 2018 elections, the previous midterm cycle where Trump was in office and the Democrats were out of power, when former President Barack Obama as well as then-former Vice President Biden were in demand on the campaign trail.

Among those not highlighting Biden this cycle is Deb Haaland, a former House member from New Mexico who served as Department of the Interior secretary in the Biden administration and is now running for governor in the blue-leaning state. The former president isn't mentioned in Haaland's campaign website.

Another example is Xavier Becerra, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden and is now running for California governor. The former president isn't mentioned in Becerra's campaign launch video.

IT'S EARLY IN 2026, BUT THE 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE IS WELL UNDERWAY

But some Biden alumni running in solidly blue areas are mentioning their service during his administration. That includes Democratic congressional candidate Sanjyot Dunung, who is seeking office in Illinois 8th District. She mentions in her launch video that she served on Biden's foreign policy working group.

It's still too early to tell if the former president could end up being a drag on potential 2028 presidential contenders that served in his administration. Both former Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are seen as possible White House contenders.

For Democrats hoping Biden stays out of the limelight, the former president has mostly obliged. Biden has only made a handful of high-profile public appearances and sat for just a couple of major interviews since the end of his presidency.

Fox News reached out to Biden's post-presidency team for comment, but didn't receive a response at the time this story was published.

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced she was ending the work of a task force that sought to reform the U.S. intelligence community, including rooting out what she described as the politicization of intelligence gathering, after less than a year since its creation.

Gabbard established the group in April, when it was also tasked with probing ways to reduce spending on intelligence and whether reports on high-profile topics such as COVID-19 should be declassified.

In a statement on Wednesday, Gabbard said the task force's work was always intended to be temporary after she was tapped to oversee coordination of the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.

"In less than one year, we’ve brought a historic level of transparency to the intelligence community," Gabbard said in her statement. "My commitment to transparency, truth, and eliminating politicization and weaponization within the intelligence community remains central to all that we do."

TULSI GABBARD DENIES WRONGDOING OVER DELAYED WHISTLE-BLOWER COMPLAINT REFERRAL TO CONGRESS MEMBERS: 'BASELESS'

The number of officers assigned to the task force, as well as their identities, are classified, according to Gabbard's office.

The officers will now return to other intelligence agencies to continue the work the group started, her office added.

The group sparked criticism against Gabbard after its creation, with Democrats and some intelligence insiders raising questions about whether it would be used to undermine intelligence agencies and bring them under tighter control of President Donald Trump.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last year that the group appeared to be a "pass for a witch hunt" designed to target intelligence officers deemed disloyal to Trump.

TRUMP CLAIMS DNI TULSI GABBARD WAS AT GEORGIA ELECTION HUB SEARCH BECAUSE AG PAM BONDI WANTED HER THERE

"This seems to be just a pass for a witch hunt and that's going to further undermine our national security," Warner told Reuters at the time.

Gabbard has implemented significant changes to the country's intelligence gathering in the last year, including by using agencies to back up Trump's claims about alleged interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

In August, she revealed plans to cut her office's workforce and slash more than $700 million from its annual budget. She also fired two top intelligence officials in May after concluding that they opposed Trump.

Since Gabbard took over as director, the federal government has revoked the security clearances of dozens of former and current officials, including high-profile political opponents of the president, which critics have panned as being a punishment for siding against Trump rather than posing security risks.

Gabbard's presence for a recent FBI search of a Georgia election office in connection to the 2020 election has led to criticism from Democrats who argue she is blurring the traditional lines between foreign intelligence collection and domestic law enforcement.

The CIA has also released additional information about its investigations into the origins of COVID-19, such as an assessment released last year that affirmed the position that it most likely originated in a lab in China.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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As House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith dropped the gavel at 10:05 a.m. on Tuesday opening a hearing on "malign foreign influence," the groups under scrutiny did not retreat, apologize or go silent.

They escalated.

Inside Room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building, Smith warned that the U.S. nonprofit sector had become a vulnerability exploited by foreign adversaries. Outside the hearing room — across social media — far-left organizations tied to Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, born in the U.S. and living in Shanghai, pressed forward with rhetoric vilifying the United States for its alleged "colonial policies" and "imperialism" and amplifying narratives aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, and communist allies like Cuba.

"This is not politics. It’s about national security," Smith said, as he opened the hearing titled "Foreign Influence in American Nonprofits: Unmasking Threats from Beijing." He said the committee was investigating "money trails" behind tax-exempt groups accused of "sowing chaos, fueling antisemitism," and interfering in elections.

HOUSE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES LEFT-WING ORGANIZATIONS ‘SOWING CHAOS’ ACROSS US

During the hearing, Smith sharpened the warning.

"The CCP is taking advantage of our tax-exempt sector," he said.

For any organization allegedly breaking nonprofit tax laws, he said: "We’re coming for you!"

Breaking the fourth wall, Fox News Digital examined how the Singham network positioned itself outside the hearing room. A flurry of social media posts reveal that, even as Smith's words echoed in the hearing room, the ecosystem he described was aggressively putting forward their own rhetoric of defiance.

On Tuesday, during the hearing, CodePink, co-founded by Singham’s wife Jodie Evans, was circulating a narrative accusing the United States of enabling atrocities abroad. On its X social media account, CodePink shared an article claiming Israel had "evaporated" Palestinians in Gaza, concluding: "Horrors beyond comprehension — made possible by the United States."

The message mirrored language long pushed by U.S. adversaries, including the terrorist group Hamas. 

While CodePink activists often crash hearings, screaming interruptions and heckling Republicans, they didn't show up for this hearing, where their name was invoked several times for scrutiny.

In his opening remarks, Smith waved letters he had sent the night before to BreakThrough BT Media, a multimedia nonprofit, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a think tank – both media entities funded by Singham – demanding records on their ties to Singham and alleging they promoted propaganda aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.

Online, the groups gave no indication they were retreating. BreakThrough News posted protest footage from San Francisco, even with drone video of teachers picketing, one of them carrying a bold yellow-and-black sign from the Party for Socialism and Liberation that read, "MAKE THE BILLIONAIRES PAY."

BreakThrough News showcased anti-U.S. narratives, one demonstrator shouting, "Enough is enough!"

The far-left groups persisted as Network Contagion Research Institute co-founder Adam Sohn testified, "This is engineered subversion," describing how foreign-aligned narratives move through U.S. nonprofits and activist networks.

The response from those networks was more performative "agitprop," a Soviet-era tactic for agitation propaganda. 

As lawmakers questioned witnesses about fiscal sponsorships and donor-advised funds, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is also part of the Singham’s network, promoted street protests and posted videos declaring victory. 

One post from the Party for Socialism and Liberation from San Francisco racked up likes during the hearing, emblazoned with the words: "WE WILL WIN!"

That posture — aggressive, unapologetic and public — is exactly what experts warned about regarding the influence operation that U.S. adversaries are able to wage against the nation.

"They don’t need spies anymore," Sohn told lawmakers. "They can use nonprofits," like a Trojan horse, to "launder" their propaganda.

WATCH: HARDCORE SOCIALIST GROUPS STAGE-MANAGE ANTI-ICE PROTEST IN WASHINGTON

By late morning, Democratic Socialists of America, which has 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations, added their own signal of defiance. As lawmakers debated foreign narrative laundering, Democratic Socialists of America widely shared a post where it praised the Super Bowl halftime performance by the Puerto Rican sensation "Bad Bunny," as "a damning critique of the harms of U.S. colonial policies."

"As socialists in the U.S.," Democratic Socialists of America declared. "It is our duty to support the struggles of peoples across the world suffering from the full weight of U.S. imperialism."

The rhetoric landed as Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, testified that "foreigners abuse this sector in order to hide their influence ops."

"This committee is investigating money trails," Smith warned. "This is about national security."

Still, the messaging outside the room intensified.

The People’s Forum shared content praising communist Cuba and circulated a "Call to Conscience demanding an end to Trump’s assault on Cuba," even as Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick called the groups out for "digital laundering operations," the process of repackaging the narratives and rhetoric of foreign adversaries to make them appear organic from inside the U.S.

Inside the hearing, Smith warned, "If you are an American, you should be extremely concerned." He asked witnesses to walk through Singham’s "web" of nonprofits.

Outside, that web responded in kind.

Students for Justice in Palestine, a nonprofit ally of the groups in the Singham network, urged Americans to "END ALL OCCUPATIONS," whatever that meant, "from Palestine to Minneapolis."

By 1:45 p.m., Smith dropped the gavel again.

"The committee stands adjourned," he said.

Online, the campaign never paused. Democratic Socialists of America pushed a "Call to Conscience" to end the Trump administration’s "cruel blockade on Cuba." The People’s Forum, an "incubator" hub for Marxist groups in the Singham network, based in New York City, moved ahead with its Tuesday night event for "comrades."

It hosted an evening discussing the "Hidden Histories of Rebellion in the US."

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It was a famous question that Howard Baker asked as the Watergate scandal was enveloping Richard Nixon.

"What did the president know and when did he know it?" the Tennessee senator proclaimed.

Plenty, as it turned out, and Nixon resigned rather than face certain impeachment and conviction.

Now, more than half a century later, the same question is being asked about another president.

TRUMP ALLEGEDLY THANKED POLICE FOR PROBING EPSTEIN IN 2000S, WARNED GHISLAINE MAXWELL IS ‘EVIL’: FBI DOC

It’s important to say upfront that the long-awaited Jeffrey Epstein files have produced not a scintilla of evidence that Donald Trump personally engaged in sexual misconduct.

But he knew a helluva lot more than he’s let on.

Thanks to the relentless reporting of the Miami Herald’s Julie Brown, who has blanketed this story since the sweetheart sentencing deal that Epstein finagled in 2008, Trump knew exactly what was going on between the reprehensible pedophile and underage girls.

EPSTEIN VICTIMS USE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL TO PRESSURE PAM BONDI OVER WITHHELD FILES

The scoop is based in part on a 2019 FBI interview with the former Palm Beach police chief, Michael Reiter.

In the summer of 2006, Reiter said, Trump called him and said everyone in Palm Beach and New York knew about Epstein’s sexual activities with minors.

He also said that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s enabler and onetime girlfriend, now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, was "evil" and to focus on her.

"Thank goodness you’re stopping this, everyone has known he’s been doing this," Reiter recalled Trump saying, referring to an Epstein probe the chief had launched three years earlier.

What’s more, the chief says Trump told him "he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and he ‘got the hell out of there.’"

During this period, a woman had called authorities and said her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by Epstein, as had other girls at the same high school, who allegedly were giving Epstein massages or being subjected to assault or rape, according to this account.

Reiter brought the case to the state’s attorney, which declined to prosecute, and then to the FBI.

In a 2019 email before his suicide in prison, Epstein wrote: "Of course he knew about the girls, as he begged Ghislaine to stop."  

That same year, asked by reporters if he knew about Epstein’s depraved pedophilia, the president said: "No, I had no idea. I had no idea." 

CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST SAYS DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST THE COUNTRY. IT’S COMPLICATED.

The absurd deal: prosecutors gave Epstein federal immunity in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of solicitation, one involving a minor. He served all of 13 months.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who is working with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, yesterday named six people whose files were inexplicably redacted. That shielded them from public disclosure.

"There were six wealthy, powerful men that the DOJ hid for no apparent reason," Khanna said.

Khanna and Massie were allowed to review the unredacted files for two hours.

Khanna named them on the House floor, where he has immunity: 

"Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, Nicola Caputo, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO of Dubai Ports World, and billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner, who was labeled as a co-conspirator by the FBI. 

"Now my question is, why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public? And if we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3 million files."

That is indeed the question. Why were they shielded from public exposure? How many more are there?

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE'S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY'S HOTTEST STORIES

Maxwell, summoned by Republican James Comer’s Oversight Committee, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and indicated she would continue to do that unless Trump granted her clemency.

Trump had dropped hints when he and Epstein were still friendly. In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump called him a "terrific guy…it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

The Epstein files have been politically toxic for Trump since the start of his second term. And now the plot is thickening.

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