Rubio, Bessent Show GOP How To Give No Quarter To Dems

President Donald Trump fundamentally altered the Republican Party from one that surrenders cordially to one that treats Democrats and weak Republicans with the contempt they deserve. There was no better display of the benefits than Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio repudiating members of Congress on Capitol Hill this week.

Bessent went into the Senate Finance Committee, where he fought off Democrat attacks while dressing down Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., about his son’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.

“Senator Wyden has mendaciously slandered the Treasury building in an attempt to cover up his son having an investment meeting with Jeffrey Epstein to ask for funding,” Bessent said.

“Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history; we want to get some facts about this deal. That’s what we’re here for,” Wyden responded, without addressing his son’s dealings with Epstein.

Bessent replied back, smirking: “And we would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about. Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret. So, did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility?”

Bessent also corrected weak Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., about a past exchange with Director of National Intelligence nominee Bill Pulte, stating that he was going to “kick his -ss” rather than “punch him in the face.”

“That was last summer, summer of ’25. And many teams have fights in the locker room, and then go out and win for the team on the field,” Bessent said, displaying a kind of barefistedness that was completely absent from the GOP repertoire not too long ago.

This breed of Republican is totally different than anyone serving in Congress or an administration before Trump reforged the party into one that has a fighting spirit. But, in order to do so, Trump had to show a new path forward, obstinately mocking weak Republicans like Jeb Bush out of serious consideration.

He had to clean meek losers out of the Republican Party before bringing in people who were capable of beating back Democrats. Trump’s 2015-2016 campaign did exactly that, while also giving Republican voters new expectations about their candidates.

Rubio, a man who was on the debate stage with Trump in 2016, is someone who has developed the brash strength now expected by the American people.

Rubio testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a hearing where Democrats went on unbearable diatribes and refused to let him answer. Instead of sitting there and taking it like a Republican would a little over a decade ago, he decided to make fun of them to their faces.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., used her “question” time to vomit a wall of text at Rubio. After Rubio beclowned her in front of the committee, she started screaming at him and then stomped out of the room as Rubio taunted her.

Kamlager-Dove claimed that “this is the most corrupt administration in American history,” adding that there are “pardons for sale,” and monetary benefits to Trump’s family. She was also angry about the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which was supposed to offer restitution to Americans who were targeted through lawfare by the federal government, almost entirely when it was under the control of her party.

“You’re absolutely wrong about the way the money flows, it’s pretty straightforward,” Rubio began, before Kamlager-Dove cut him off to “reclaim my time again.”

“What kind of process is this? They get to ask questions and you don’t get to answer?” Rubio asked, with Kamlager-Dove shouting over him, saying, “It’s my time!”

“When is it my time?” Rubio asked in response. “So why am I here if I don’t get to answer your questions or your defamatory statements? … Do I get time? Because you make these defamatory statements and no one can talk here. This is crazy!”

Rubio wouldn’t let up, and kept asking her if he was going to be able to speak, or if this was just her moment in the sun, and was clearly holding back laughter. He pointed out that the Democrats were trying to shriek long enough to force him to use Republican members’ time to answer.

“This is a joke. … Can I reclaim my time?” he smirked.

“You don’t have this time yet,” Kamlager-Dove sassed back. Rubio laughed at her.

Kamlager-Dove’s time “unfortunately” expired, the chairman jokingly said, but she responded by screaming into the microphone: “And giving contracts with no transparency is exactly the reason why you shut down USAID, so practice what you preach.”

“Oh, she gets to scream now too?” Rubio asked. “What kind of thing is this? What is this? You get asked questions for five minutes and you don’t get time to answer? It’s not a hearing!”

Another congressman interjected, “I think you said clown show before.” Kamlager-Dove started to get up to leave, and Rubio bullied her all the way out of the room: “Why is she leaving, I’m gonna answer her questions!” She responded by screaming from the back of the room, to which Rubio replied, laughing, “Well, thank you for coming!”

The room erupted, laughing at Kamlager-Dove.

The exchange with Kamlager-Dove was not the only one that ended in a Democrat being laughed out of the room.

Every time Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Penn., appeared to be asking a “question,” Rubio could only get a few words out before Dean squawked back, “reclaiming my time.” She continued her tirade only to “reclaim” her time again, cutting off Rubio’s answer.

“Here we go with the reclaiming our time thing,” Rubio said. “You guys gotta fix your rules here, you can’t even answer a question.”

Dean cut him off again, saying he was not following the rules and that he was “very familiar” with House rules. Rubio had to remind her that he only served in the Senate.

“I never served in the House. This is a weird rule, where you ask a question and I can’t answer?”

Dean asked the chairman to add time to her question clock, to which the chairman responded with a quick “nope,” before the room burst into laughter at Dean.

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.