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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSessions' own words come back to haunt him.
Jeffy was squirming!
Congressman dismantles Jeff Sessions in epic 5-minute cross-examination
https://thinkprogress.org/congressman-jeff-sessions-cross-examination-83235322d00a/
Sessions' own words come back to haunt him.
Judd Legum
Nov 14, 2017, 4:07 pm
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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., questions Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, in Washington. (CREDIT: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeatedly came under heavy criticism from Democratic members. At issue was his statement, delivered under oath during his confirmation hearings, that neither he nor anyone else on the Trump campaign had contact with Russia during the course of the 2016 election. It was subsequently revealed that Sessions had multiple meetings with the Russian ambassador and knew about other contacts between campaign staff and Russians.
Perhaps the most effective questioning came from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). His strategy was simple: use Sessions own words to make his point.
Jeffries started by establishing that Sessions claimed he didnt recall the answer to various questions dozens of times during his appearances before Congress as attorney general. Jeffries then summarized Sessions comments to Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on October 4, 2016 in which he blasted Hillary Clinton for the exact same behavior, suggesting that it could be criminal.
Jeffries was limited to five minutes, so he didnt have time to read Sessions full quote from his October 2016 appearance with Dobbs ahead of the vice presidential debate, but here it is.
SESSIONS: Lou, thats the way you lie. Thats the way people do it in court. Ive seen it many, many times. Well, I dont remember, but if. And she said 35 times before the FBI interview that she couldnt remember? If you can remember and you dont if you say and you say, I cant remember, then thats as false a perjurious statement as if you flat-out gave a false statement.
Mr. Attorney General, do you still believe that the intentional failure to remember can and constitute a criminal act? Jeffries asked.
If its an act to deceive, yes, Sessions acknowledged.
But Jeffries noted that on February 23, 1999, during the Senate impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, Sessions told a story about a young police officer who said something inaccurate during a deposition in a federal lawsuit but then later corrected his statement. Sessions said it was my decision whether the officer would be prosecuted for his perjury.
.....................................
Sessions said he concluded that a sworn police officer who had told a plain lie under oath, even a young officer, should be prosecuted in order to preserve the rule of law and the integrity of the system. In explaining his vote to convict Clinton and remove him from office, Sessions said I cannot hold a young police officer to a different and higher standard than the President of the United States.
True Dough
(17,337 posts)the comments on YouTube videos make me cringe. The ones below that video gave me some good laughs.
Thanks for posting!
Eliot Rosewater
(31,125 posts)He is hiding it well but the entire time this conversation takes place, Sessions is fantasizing harming the congressman.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,047 posts)MyOwnPeace
(16,940 posts)a FANTASTIC post!!!
It should be a front page article in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the lead story on all evening news shows!
Republican hypocrisy at its best!
And for Rep. Jeffries:
d_r
(6,907 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)But I doubt seriously whether Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will ever have that "come to Jesus" moment, even when his own tin-plated hypocrisy is paraded around a hearing for everyone to see. I think what I liked second best about Jeffries' pantsing of the Attorney General was when he interrupted the AG to say that he was the one asking the questions, and this wasn't like when Sessions was a Senator. My favorite part was when Jeffries got done, he yielded back the remainder of his time, and Sessions didn't have a chance to respond with some drawling lugubrious crapulence.
brer cat
(24,621 posts)K&R
Shaddox
(384 posts)Fast and concise questions all building to that final point, and controlling the dialogue - that was very masterful. I love the way Sessions tried to slow talk and bumble his answers to eat up time. Jeffries gave a clinic in how to do this properly.
rurallib
(62,460 posts)let me add that Jeffries stopped Sessions every attempt to divert, waste time and otherwise disrupt the questions.
Welcome to DU
orangecrush
(19,633 posts)Put that nazi elf in his place!
dem4decades
(11,306 posts)marble falls
(57,340 posts)if for no other reason than I get some joy watching him squirm and twitch.
Rep Jeffries, however would make a great AG.
berksdem
(595 posts)wen of lies but until something comes out of it he wins and democracy loses.
Stuart G
(38,449 posts)TeamPooka
(24,262 posts)True Blue American
(17,992 posts)I did not know this until this morning. He did not suck up to Sessions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/goodlatte-of-virginia-retiring-from-congress-after-13-terms/2017/11/09/8819c6e4-c568-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html