CNN panelists burst into laughter at 'head-scratching moment' in Pam Bondi hearing

Panelists on "CNN This Morning" burst into laughter when host Audie Cornish brought up a startling response by Attorney General Pam Bondi during her contentious congressional hearing.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) asked the attorney general Wednesday how many of Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators she had indicted, which set off an eruption from her, and Bondi loudly changed the subject when he and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) attempted to redirect her.

“The DOW is over 50,000 dollars," Bondi fumed. "I don’t know why you’re laughing. You’re a great stock trader, as I hear, Raskin."

Cornish brought up that exchange Friday morning in the context of President Donald Trump's economic record.

"I want to talk about the price of Trump's prosperity, which is turning out to come at a cost to Americans because we have been paying the tariffs, not foreign countries," Cornish said. "That's according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which finds we paid a whopping 90 percent of import taxes last year. It cost U.S. households an average tax increase of about $1,000. The National Bureau of Economic Research and CBO had similar numbers. I wanted to talk about this because there was this kind of head scratching moment in the Pam Bondi hearings, where I think it was Jerry Nadler was trying to ask her question about the things she was there for, something legal, and the Epstein files."

She played a video clip of Bondi's outburst, and New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Vox podcaster Noel King started laughing.

"Why are you laughing?" Cornish said.

"Because she's head of the Justice Department," Garcia-Navarro replied, shrugging.

"So the internet responded hilariously," Cornish continued. "There were people that are like, 'Oh, your girl is cheating on you, say why are we talking about this? The Dow.' One joke hit me where it was like, 'My rent is late, but what about the Dow? Why are we talking about this?'"

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