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We are back and staying on our top story toda because right now on Capitol Hill, former Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing questions from members of the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors. We just got a look at our opening statement revealing this nugget. She said, quote, I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself. I delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who happens to now be acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Virginia Democratic Congressman Suha Subramaniam is joining us now. He was just in that room. Congressman, just take us inside what's happening as much as you can right now? Well, the reason there's no cameras inside is because Republicans didn't want to videotape this. They also want this to be a transcribed interview, which is separate SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO SWEAR IN AT THE BEGINNING. SO SHE CAN CHOOSE NOT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS, SHE'S NOT TECHNICALLY UNDER OATH, ALTHOUGH IF SHE LIES TO US, THAT'S LYING TO CONGRESS WHICH IS A CRIME. BUT JUST THE WHOLE situation is ridiculous that she isn't really under the same pressures as let's say the Clintons were when they were interviewed.
What is the tone and tenor, though, of this interview so FAR, BECAUSE WE'VE SEEN HER IN PAST PUBLIC APPEARANCES IN FRONT OF LAWMAKERS, DODGING QUESTIONS, BEING COMBATIVE. IS THAT THE TONE AND TENOR OF WHAT YOU'RE EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW? NO, BECAUSE SO FAR ONLY THE REPUBLICANS HAVE ANSWERED questions or asked questions of her. And so, because of that, you know, she's been asked kind of the softballs, you know, questions that she was expecting to answer. And so she's been very well prepared and had calm answers to all of the questions. But obviously, we're about to ask questions on the Democratic side and things will be different,
I would imagine, during that questioning. And so to that end, I was talking with your colleague, Congressman James Walkinshaw this morning on my show way too early about the things that he was interested in. It's everything from the release of the files, which she seems to be passing the buck to the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, which I think is notable, to the Ghislaine Maxwell deal that landed her in a minimum security I WONDER, ARE YOUR INTERESTS THE SAME? ARE THERE OTHER QUESTIONS THAT YOU'RE INTERESTED IN ASKING HER TOO? WE HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS FOR HER.
I MEAN, THE PAST YEAR AND A HALF, SHE SAID FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, RIGHT, THAT SHE HAD THE FILES ON our desk. And then we asked for the answers to these questions. We asked her to release these files back in August. She didn't comply with our subpoena. In December, the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The DOJ still hasn't complied with it. And so we have so many questions for her, and this is just a continuation of the cover-up. And we just don't know why this administration continues to fail the American people when it comes to protecting survivors.
We were also talking about the fact that there's two DOJ OFFICIALS IN THAT ROOM DESPITE THE FACT THAT BONDI IS THERE IN HER PRIVATE CITIZEN CAPACITY. ARE THEY SAYING VERY MUCH? WHAT IS THE ROLE THAT THEY ARE PLAYING IN THAT room? Generally, I believe they are there because she is there in her former official capacity and to answer questions about what she did in her official capacity at the DOJ. So that's her JUSTIFICATION FOR SENDING ATTORNEYS THAT ARE PAID WITH TAXPAYER MONEY TO DEFEND HER AND THE ADMINISTRATION IS BECAUSE SHE'S DOING THIS IN OFFICIAL CAPACITY. I HAVE SOME ISSUES WITH THAT.
I ALSO HAVE SOME ISSUES generally with the fact that she's tried to duck this interview to begin with, and she tried to come in a situation where she doesn't have to be sworn in. If she has nothing to hide, she should have been sworn in. If she has nothing to hide, she should to be videotaped. And I don't know why she's refused those things. I wonder if you also have issues with this, because according to a letter sent to the chairman, the DOJ is actually going to have the opportunity to review the transcript of this interview before it's released to the public. Why is that necessary? And does it mean that they're going to have the ability to redact things? And what is the code to build those redactions?
Do you have any understanding around that? Well, remember, a House Republicans say they work for Donald Trump, right? And so they're going hand in hand with the Trump administration, not just this, but many other issues, right? And so that's why the DOJ will get to review them first, right, which is not really how we do business on the oversight committee. Our job is to do oversight of the DOJ, do oversight over all these agencies, not work hand in hand with them. So you have real issues with that. So do a lot of Democrats on the committee. But what can be done, right? In what ways can Democrats and, you know,
I recognize the limitations of being in the minority. But how can they assure the public that they're going to see the same transcript that the committee members were privy to because they were in that room? And wouldn't you imagine that Republicans who pushed to subpoena Bondi in the first place would also want to see that kind of transparency. Yeah, a couple of things can be done. First of all, we're all in that room. I'm going to be in that room today. And so anything I see in the transcript that doesn't line up, but what I heard, I'm certainly going to speak up about that.
The second thing is we have Republicans who've joined us in supporting the subpoena to begin with. And if they are not satisfied either, we can work with them to issue further subpoenas. So there's several things that we can do. And so I'm confident that we will get at least something out of this hearing. One thing I would say is, I do want to talk to Todd Blanch now. I'd like to subpoena Todd Blanch. I'd also like to subpoena Kash Patel as well, just based on what I've heard so far. She's talking about Kash Patel in that room?
He has come up, yes. Interested to hear more about that. Congressman We will leave it there so that you can go in and take the democratic turn of asking some questions. But thank you for coming out and joining us.
