How Congressional Hearings Work
It's all about television.
So there is a hearing in congress. You may believe that the congressmen are asking questions in order to form an opinion. This is not so. Their mind is already made up. The true goal is to look good on television. That’s what gets you re-elected.
This is why congressmen often cut off replies so abruptly. The questioner is completely uninterested in what the responder has to say. And the questioner has only five minutes of TV time. Every second the camera is on the responder is for you a complete waste. There is no reason to allow this. Not only that, responder might get off a zinger that makes it onto TV and hurts you. Why take any such chance? Just shut them up right away.
This is also the reason questions may have a hostile tone bordering on shouting. Such drama is what TV likes. Not dignified boring droning. Think Jerry Springer.
The vote usually comes down to party lines in the end so all this is theater. There are a few exceptions. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted against his party in the recent Hegseth confirmation hearing. He hated Hegseth so much he couldn’t stand it. Afterward he wouldn’t speak to the press about his reasons. No point in saying something that can be used against you later. And it was all a symbolic gesture anyway. He knew how the vote was going to go. If there was a chance Hegseth would not be confirmed then I expect McConnell would have voted aye. Politics is a team sport and there is a limit to Mr. McConnell’s rebelliousness. He wants to keep his position.
There is an outside chance you can make the candidate say something that looks bad enough as to get them rejected. The candidates know this too, so often they only pretend to respond. This is “pivoting.” Don’t say anything that can be repeated on television as a damaging soundbite. The congressman can keep asking the same question over and over but they have only five minutes. Anyone can hold out for that long. Above all don’t take the bait and lose your temper. People don’t like hotheads in positions of power.
Enjoy it as a theatrical exercise, much like professional wrestling, or don’t bother to watch. That’s my advice.
The confirmation of RFKJ seems to me the most in doubt. He did not show the desired respect, and he is a major threat to the Pharma cash flow of many very powerful persons.
Here you can see someone laughing at what he said, then pretending to be coughing. https://youtu.be/ayy5LFSgNO0?si=jVNcKL6GCGNziQ6R&t=159
Walter Kirn on the RFKJ hearing: There were people lined up for the overflow at 4:00 AM yesterday. That’s how intense and widespread the interest is in this nomination. And so these senators realized that piggybacking on his fame and the interest in his nomination, they were going to get a chance probably to speak to more Americans than they will anytime this year. And they made sure they got to use it.
Matt Taibbi: Yeah. So for people who don’t know how officials like this raise money, the surest way they do it now is they get a little piece of video that they mass distribute usually by email, but sometimes by Facebook and social media. And typically what they want is they want a confrontational, aggressive scene where they’re yelling at somebody and then they fundraise off that. So it’s very important for them to get the finger-wagging, sort of Jim Acosta-style confrontation. And boy, were there a lot of them with RFK yesterday.
Kirn : When you’re in the room and they scream and you feel the primal Neanderthal emotional intensity of the confrontation, it’s shocking. The intensity, and as I say, the dramatic emotional valence of it surprised me. It really surprised me. I thought, in no other setting... I’ve been in courtrooms over and over through my life, I’ve covered trials. This behavior would last 10 seconds in a courtroom, but in the US Senate, whoa, it just runs riot.