Kerry/Ron Johnson >BOOM

[karynnj]

53. We can agree that we will not agree on this

My guess is that a 2016 D challenger could easily use the exchange to move independents away from Johnson. The contrast between the initially agitated Johnson with his baseless charges that he had just been called on the day before being swatted away with zero effort by Kerry quietly pointed out the that Congress did get the timeline is immensely damaging for many reasons.

1) Johnson was utterly ineffective - especially as he quietly conceded "no" - and Kerry then continued to outline what was in the meeting.

2) It called him out for not attending an important hearing. This is a charge always used to hurt Senators. The fact is that they often have 2 or more hearings at the same time making it a physical impossibility to attend all their committee's hearings. Here, he has inflated Benghazi as the premier issue and he then can be seen admitting he did not attend the hearing. (One thing I don't know is whether the closed door hearings are taped as well as the open ones on the web site - if so, it also meant he did not view that.)

I agree that Kerry's interaction was less bombastic than Hillary's and made less of a partisan splash - but that might be why it is ultimately more damaging.

(The alternative you suggest might not have been positive as Johnson was grilling Kerry, not the other way around - even though in essence JK did do that via his question on attending the hearing.)