We'd say that nothing would surprise us about the goings-on in this administration, but that wouldn't be quite true. It would surprise us--immensely--if it came out that Jeff Sessions is a dishonest man.
The attorney general of the United States--just one of the excellent picks on this president's Cabinet--handled himself as cool as any general under fire this week. No matter how rude some United States senators can be. Of course, that's the purpose of the opposition: to oppose. No need to hold it against them. In this country, a loyal opposition makes a good administration better and a bad administration gone. But you'd think they'd be polite enough to allow a man to finish an answer before asking another.
Hours into his grilling, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to sit back and smile at the rapid-fire accusations/interrogations/insinuations that the Democrats shot his way in an attempt to get the man tripped up between sentences, and thus accuse him of lying later. Neat trick. And it might have worked on someone with less experience. Lest we forget, Jeff Sessions was on the other side of the room for 20 years, directing his own questions at those testifying before Congress. He knows how these things work.
Senator Al Franken, he of Saturday Night Live fame, sort of, has become good at the game. At Mr. Sessions' confirmation hearing several months back, he was successful at tying up the nominee about his contacts with any Russians during the presidential campaign. The attorney general's explanation Tuesday was more than satisfactory. Many of us have been there:
"Relatedly, there is the assertion that I did not answer Senator Franken's question honestly at my confirmation hearing. That is false. This is how it happened: He asked me a rambling question that included dramatic, new allegations that the United States' intelligence community had advised President-elect Trump that 'there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump's surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.' I was taken aback by these explosive allegations, which he said were being reported in breaking news that day. I wanted to refute immediately any suggestion that I was a part of such an activity. I replied, 'Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have--did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it.'"
Context. It's everything.
As far as colluding with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, Jeff Sessions called it "an appalling and detestable lie." There's not a whole lot of gray area there. He sounded adamant.
One of the more under-reported moments happened when the attorney general was getting grilled about something or another and his interrogator accused him of not answering yes or no immediately, and "qualifying" his answers first.
Of course, Jeff Sessions said. "If I don't qualify it, you'll accuse me of lying."
Why, Mr. Attorney General, didn't you know? That might have been the whole point.
Editorial on 06/15/2017