If you were working all day yesterday and missed the Senate hearing featuring testimony from Attorney General William Barr, you missed out on a lot, according to social media.

Mazie Hirono of Hawaii either completely trashed Barr or made a fool out of herself. Ted Cruz positively owned the Democrats. Kamala Harris, oddly, gutted Barr like a fish? I dunno. That’s what one website said.

Kamala Harris Eviscerates Barr, Feasts On His Steaming Offal pic.twitter.com/av1yn4P75L

— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) May 2, 2019

Also, Lindsey Graham (quoting someone else) dropped the F-bomb. And so on and so forth.

If you only paid attention to media takeaways and social media reactions, you have no idea what happened in yesterday’s hearing. It’s almost as if, now follow me on this, but it’s almost as if nothing substantive actually happened yesterday.

Because it didn’t.

These hearings are a joke, moreso now than they’ve ever been. There is no point to these hearings because they give us no new information. Everything we know about the Mueller report, his letter to Barr, and the actual investigation into Donald Trump are things we know based solely on what’s been publicly released. We didn’t need this hearing.

So why have it? Because Congressional hearings are publicly-funded campaign ads. They give politicians a chance to show off their best material to the people who watch not to learn anything but to see someone get “owned.”

I was one of the people who did not watch the hearing. I have a day job, but even if I didn’t, I have no desire to watch politicians making fools out of themselves and the country with these antics. It demeans the institution and insults our intelligence.

There was no outcome yesterday. We all left that hearing none the wiser. But, hey, it gives people a chance to further push this hyper-partisan, one-up culture in the political arena. That’s healthy.