U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spent the balance of his time detouring around questions when he appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in regard to Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, but California Sen. Kamala Harris came at him directly, and he even said she made him nervous.
Sessions was clearly being impacted by Harris’ rapid-fire questioning and refusal to allow him to waste her time.
“Did you have any communications with Russian officials for any reason during the campaign that have not been disclosed in public or to this committee?” Harris asked.
Sessions: “I don’t recall it. But I have to tell you, I cannot testify to what was said as we were standing at the Republican Convention before the podium where I spoke.”
Uh, what question was he answering there? Surely not the one she asked, so she tried again. Same question, simple words, different targets. “Did you have any communication with any Russian businessmen or any Russian nationals?”
Sessions seemed to be able to answer that, with some qualification, mostly that he didn’t believe he did.
As she went to ask another question, he interrupted her with more qualifications. There were a lot of people at the convention, he said. It’s “conceivable.”
Losing patience with Sessions’ filibuster, Harris persisted, pressing into her next question, but Sessions was not finished.
“If I don’t qualify it, you’ll accuse me of lying,” he whined. “I’m trying to be as correct as I can.’
Sessions added a complaint: “I don’t like to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous.”
Check out the Twitter responses to Harris’ questioning of Sessions below:
