If we learned anything from Attorney General Jeff Sessions‘ testimony this Tuesday, it’s that he has a capacity for memory that would render most of us unable to function in daily life. But thanks to Kamala Harris (D-CA), we now know what it looks like when he gets knocked off his goofy poker face.
When Sessions wasn’t utilizing his conveniently faulty memory to dodge questions, he was invoking what he called “executive privilege,” which Harris immediately pounced upon. Earlier in the exchange, she pressed Sessions on any possible undisclosed contacts he may have had with Russian officials, which prompted him to complain that Harris’s “rushed” line of questioning was making him “nervous.”
Harris then turned to Sessions’ invocation of the “longstanding DOJ policy” of executive privilege.
“You referred to a longstanding DOJ policy,” Harris said to Sessions. “Can you tell us what policy it is you are talking about?”
“Well, I think most cabinet people, as the witnesses you had before you earlier, those individuals declined to comment bc we’re all about conversations with the president…”
“Sir, I’m just asking you about the DOJ policy you are referring to,” she interrupted. “Is that policy in writing somewhere?”
“I think so,” Sessions responded.
From Fusion‘s Rafi Schwartz:
When Harris, frustrated at the obvious attempts to run out the clock on her questions, began pointedly explaining her line of inquiry to the smugly smiling Sessions, John McCain, followed by committee chair Richard Burr, attempted to silence her—and only her, over the course of the entire hearing— with Burr saying that “the witness should be allowed to answer the question,” as if Sessions really had any intention of doing so. And, in fact, after Sessions continued to dodge her questions, Harris was informed that her time had expired.
Watch the full exchange in the video below:
Featured image via screen grab
