The Commentary Magazine Podcast – "Bondi Goes Electric"

Date: October 8, 2025
Panelists: John Podhoretz (host), Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, Eliana Johnson

Overview

This episode explores dramatic shifts in America’s political and cultural landscape, focusing on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s controversial Senate hearing performance, the erosion of constitutional and civic norms, executive power in the Trump administration, issues of federal intervention in crime policy, and a high-profile antisemitism case involving a Harvard Law professor. The hosts lament the breakdown of institutional trust and discuss the normalization of extreme personas in media and academia.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pam Bondi's Senate Showdown: A New Model of Executive Confrontation

• Bondi’s combative testimony: AG Pam Bondi appeared before the Senate, aggressively rebuffing Democratic senators’ questions about alleged improprieties and Justice Department overreach—eschewing the typical deference of cabinet members. (06:38–15:19)
  • She openly taunted senators: "I'm not talking to you. Your wife got a sweetheart deal, why don't you answer that question?" (14:34, Podhoretz channeling Bondi)
  • "Blumenthal... you lied about your military service." and to Adam Schiff: "You were held in contempt of Congress by people in the Congress that you yourself were part of." (09:14)
• Panel reactions:
  • John Podhoretz actors both as amused viewer and constitutionalist, recognizing both the entertainment and its serious implications.
  • Christine Rosen perceives it as “a significant expansion of executive power” and the effective sidelining of congressional oversight. (11:20)
  • Eliana Johnson calls it “a big deal,” noting the precedent it sets for future executive-legislative relations, and its potential to end in court. (12:41–14:12)
  • Abe Greenwald is “delighted” by Bondi’s performance, arguing lawmakers have themselves long behaved like cable news partisans: “It’s a taste of their own medicine.” (14:09–14:33)

2. Norms, Oversight, and the New Political Order

• Erosion of norms: The group traces the decline of institutional behavior, debating when norms were breached and whether new, more adversarial norms have replaced them.
  • Podhoretz: “We’re living... in open field Calvinball here in terms of our culture and society” (75:17)
  • Eliana Johnson: “I think the normie sensibility is... is this really how our system should work?... But I do sort of feel... every time it’s tested, it’s worth thinking through the long-term consequences.” (23:32–24:49)
  • Rosen: “There comes a point at which the assertion that we need to reestablish the norms has some kind of a past sell-by date.” (24:49)
• Historical context: They reference Holder (11:20), Mayorkas, and Obama-Biden era norm violations as precursors to the current environment.

3. Executive Power, Federalism, and the Crime Debate

• Trumpian Overreach: Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act and send troops to Democrat-controlled cities is seen as pushing federal authority to extreme limits.
  • Podhoretz: “I’m not sure how much further the boundaries can be pushed than the President... deploying troops from Texas into Illinois...” (28:01)
  • Eliana: “He’s provoking his political enemies; everybody knows this. It’s not going to solve the long-term crime problem in Chicago.” (29:27)
• Federal vs Local: Discussion of the complex legal and ethical territory of National Guard deployments, with Christine Rosen and Podhoretz defending the importance of local self-rule and federal distinctions. (32:58–37:58)
• Crime data trust crisis: The panel notes politicized crime data reporting and its impact on voters–“the voters are being told... the crime is actually on this long-term decline, but that’s based on statistics that have already been manipulated.” (41:22, Rosen)
  • Rosen: “We do need that kind of institutional, objective reality to be restored because it is starting to slip. That worries me.” (42:59)

4. Antisemitism, Academia, and Official Evasion

• Harvard Law pellet gun incident: Deep dive into visiting professor Carlos Gouveia’s arrest for firing a pellet gun outside a synagogue during Yom Kippur, and the collective eagerness of authorities and media to rule out antisemitism as a motive. (49:10–62:53)
  • Christine Rosen: “Something is just not right with this story... it just doesn’t square with his claim...” (50:42)
  • The Times reports, “law enforcement officers say... this attack was not motivated by antisemitism.” (56:10)
  • Podhoretz highlights how the synagogue’s self-description and local politics may explain the reluctance to label the act antisemitic. (58:27)
  • Eliana Johnson: “Anytime that happens, I think of that crazy Seinfeld episode... so he can make antisemitic remarks and have no one holding him accountable.” (61:17)
• Wider environment: The hosts draw a direct line from October 7th’s “permission structure” for antisemitic violence to both overt acts and societal denial:
  • Podhoretz: “Even if... he had a psychotic break.... anti-Semitism combines very nicely with psychopathology.” (63:55, 67:07–70:45)

5. The Normalization of Extreme Media Figures

• Hasan Piker segment: The crew critiques the mainstream media’s fascination with online streamer Hasan Piker, notorious for radical attacks on the US and Israel, and now publicized even as he abuses his pet on camera. (68:02–74:46)
  • Podhoretz: “Hasan Piker is ranting about how much he effing hates America... and he activates the dog’s shock collar and the dog yelps...” (68:03)
  • Christine Rosen: “This is actually the face of the young New York City left.” (74:46)
  • Eliana Johnson: “We should recognize that this is who the left has been trying to prop up as a cultural model.” (71:45)
  • They connect the left’s refusal to denounce aggressive extremism in their ranks (referencing Mamdani’s defense of Piker).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Pam Bondi hearing:

• Podhoretz: “Sheldon Whitehouse asked her a question. She says to him, ‘I’m not talking to you. Your wife got a sweetheart deal, why don’t you answer that question?’” (09:14)
• Rosen: “This did seem to me like a significant expansion of executive power... the administration is saying to Congress that oversight dead.” (11:20)
• Johnson: “If you go before Congress and basically act like you’re on a cable news show... you’re probably the least independent attorney general...” (12:41)

Norms & Boundaries:

• Podhoretz: “We’re living where we’re... just in open field. You know, Calvin Ball here, in terms of our culture and our society. And what is a world without guardrails or boundaries or anything that is even remotely deemed acceptable or unacceptable.” (75:17)
• Johnson: “A pretty significant portion of the public isn’t on board with that being the new norm yet. Maybe they will be in a generation.” (26:49)

Federal intervention & crime:

• Podhoretz: “The problem is... the people who live in these municipalities... they have self-rule... And they’re choosing to have these regimes in their own cities and are going to have to deal with the consequences of it.” (30:27)

Antisemitism denial:

• Rosen: “Something doesn’t add up here. The New York Times... simply doesn’t raise any questions... It’s left to the reader to wonder, geez, can both of these things be true?” (56:10)
• Podhoretz: “So the world in which we are still two years after October 7, saying, ‘Gee, I can’t imagine why anyone would shoot a pellet gun next to a synagogue. Hmm. Gee.’” (62:53)

Hasan Piker segment:

• Podhoretz: “We saw a guy who is one of America’s leading cheerleaders of Jew hatred and mass murder torture his dog. So he’s sick, he needs treatment, he needs to be involuntarily committed.” (68:03)
• Rosen: “He is like the media version of Mamdani and they shouldn’t whitewash him... this is actually the face of the young New York City left.” (74:46)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Bondi’s Hearing & Aftermath: 06:38–15:19
• Norms and Historical Context: 23:32–24:49 & 24:49–27:21
• Crime and Executive Power: 28:01–38:31
• Crime Data & Institutional Trust: 41:22–45:02
• Harvard Law Antisemitism Story: 49:10–62:53
• Media Extremism (Hasan Piker): 68:02–75:05
• Closing Reflections on Norms & Boundaries: 75:17–end

Conclusion

The episode captures the profound breakdown of previously respected institutional norms—especially at the highest levels of US governance—and the rise of overt, combative strategies that reward performance and grievance over constitutional process. The panel grapples with both immediate and long-term risks: the incentivization of political spectacle (as embodied by Bondi and Trump), the dulling of outrage to antisemitism, the manipulation of crime data, and the normalization of radical figures in media and academia. Despite nostalgia for more principled times, the hosts are candid that we are now living with—and must contend with—the consequences of this new reality.