{"id":94712,"date":"2026-06-06T15:42:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/rcp-panel-congressional-hearings-arent-just-performative-anymore-they-really-hate-each-other\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:42:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:42:28","slug":"rcp-panel-congressional-hearings-arent-just-performative-anymore-they-really-hate-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/rcp-panel-congressional-hearings-arent-just-performative-anymore-they-really-hate-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"RCP Panel: Congressional Hearings Aren’t Just Performative Anymore \u2014 They Really Hate Each Other"},"content":{"rendered":"

The guys on RCP’s Thursday podcast commented on how congressional hearings have changed under Trump, looking at two remarkable sets of hearings this week, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/a> delivered unusually combative performances on Capitol Hill. Opinions vary on whether this has become a political combat sport or a circus. “No, sir. I actually said I was going to kick his ass,” Bessent said when asked if he threatened to punch Bill Pulte in the mouth. “It just shows, I guess, real men can be hedge fund gay dudes. I mean, he’s ready to go out and go in the backyard and kick some ass. I’m like, whoa,” Richard Porter added about Bessent. “It’s become like Question Time in the British Parliament. These guys are really good at giving as good as they’re getting.” “There are a lot of kind of Fox News people, people with media backgrounds and so forth, in this administration. This is a hedge fund guy. This is a numbers guy. He’s an economist. He’s a brilliant finance guy. And it turns out he’s a wise guy, too,” Porter joked. “He’s not just a wise guy,” Tom Bevan said. “He’s like this mild-mannered, you know, gay guy. He’s also just an absolute killer.” “That’s a Treasury secretary unleashed,” Andrew Walworth added. “I don’t get the sense that this is performative; I think these people really hate each other.” “They do not like each other. That is very palpable and real,” Tom Bevan said. “If you’re a member of Congress and you’re sitting down and going after the Trump cabinet, you better be ready to have it thrown right back in your face.” “We’ve seen in the last couple of years, starting with the confirmation hearings, but even some of these hearings with Cabinet members. Trump administration Cabinet members go in there with their own zingers and oppo research, and they are fully ready and willing to give back in a very performative way.” “We’re used to a level of decorum that has now deteriorated when you’ve got people saying stuff like this. But this is now the way of the world in the Trump administration, for better or worse,” he said.
\nRealClearPolitics Videos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The guys on RCP’s Thursday podcast commented on how congressional hearings have changed under Trump, looking at two remarkable sets of hearings this week, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered unusually combative performances on Capitol Hill. Opinions vary on whether this has become a political combat sport or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14174,3373,6446,2624,5135,12662,1097,6711,22302,1974],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}