One of the highlights of Thursday’s House Oversight Committee hearing featuring FBI Director James Comey was the five minute questioning at the hands of Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX).

Here’s the video, if you missed it:

“Mr. Chairman, I’m offended. I’m offended by my friends on the other side of the political aisle saying this is political theater. This is not political theater. For me, this is serious. I spent nine and a half years as an undercover officer in the CIA. I was the guy in the back alleys collecting intelligence, passing it to lawmakers. I’ve seen my friends killed, I’ve seen assets put themselves in harm’s way, and this is about protecting information. The most sensitive information the American government has, and I wish my colleagues would take this a little bit more seriously.”

It was an unequivocal smack-down of the Democrats on his committee and of Director Comey’s logic (or lack thereof) involved in his decision to not pursue charges against Hillary Clinton.

Reaction to Hurd’s performance was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

https://twitter.com/ViktorFiel/status/751119027657908224

https://twitter.com/America1st4ever/status/751123753673723904

Will Hurd is a pretty impressive young member of Congress

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 8, 2016

Texas Rep. Will Hurd a Rising Star After Heroic Smack-Down at Comey Hearing https://t.co/ZbvsdOW5lg #trending

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) July 8, 2016

A few hours after his performance at the hearing, I was fortunate enough to interview Rep. Hurd. Listen to the interview here:

A highlight of the interview comes about half-way through when Hurd, a former CIA agent, expressed clear frustration with his colleagues from the Democrat side of the aisle and their seeming lack of basic understanding on how classification works in the intelligence world:

“What frustrates me, is that based on some of the questions my colleagues don’t understand how classification works. How the collection of classified information happens and is shared. And so to not understand that, and to not know the difference between a personal server and private email is pretty frustrating.”

We should expect to see more of Rep. Hurd in the future. He possesses the kind of talent and ability the GOP leadership should be highlighting on a regular basis. If they had any brains, that is.