The average American might wilt under the extraordinary heat of senatorial questioning. Jeff Sessions, the nation's top law enforcement official and himself a former senator, is not an average American.
Parrying questions at Tuesday's hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions exercised the guile that allowed him to rise to the positions of senator and then U.S. attorney general _ sometimes eating up questioners' allotted five minutes for questioning with perambulatory answers, and responding to pressure by flashing a disarming smile or a passionate defense of his honor.
"I recused myself from any investigation into the campaigns for president," Sessions said in his opening statement, "but I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations."
In Sessions' first back-and-forth with a Democrat, Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, a fellow Southerner but a Yankee by birth, Sessions' patient Alabama drawl slowed Warner's rapid-fire questions. Sessions' first four answers to Warner's first four questions ended each time with Warner having to interrupt him to ask another question.
Warner, as the committee's senior Democrat, got 10 minutes of time, but he questioned Sessions as if he had only five. In one exchange, Sessions began to explain, "I know nothing ..."
"Do ...," Warner started, but Sessions continued.
"... about the investigation ..."
"Do you believe ..."
"... and I fully recused myself ..."
"I've got a series of questions, sir," Warner finally said, speeding on to his next query.
Sessions let his pelagic calm break into waves once in the hearing, as he raised his voice both to defend his honor and subtly accuse anyone in the Senate who would question that honor:
"I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, at least some of you, and the suggestion ...," Sessions paused for dramatic effect, as he often does "... that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government, to hurt this country? ..." here Sessions inflected the word upward, as if it were a question "... which I have served with honor, for 35 years?"
Sessions' voice broke ever so slightly on the word "years," and he paused for a full second before continuing.
"... or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," Sessions said, slamming shut his sentence with the word "lie" the way an attorney might drop a heavy book on a courtroom table during trial.
It was a dramatic moment. Sessions was basically saying some of the people who knew him best were suggesting he is a traitor. Yet moments later he slipped back into easygoing collegiality _ a common segue in debates within the Senate arena he knew so well _ referring to his interrogators as "colleagues" before genially stopping himself.
"I can't say colleagues now," Sessions mused, warmly. "I'm no longer a part of this body."
Later, after Sessions repeatedly claimed that he would not answer questions about his conversations with President Donald Trump _ citing both a Justice Department policy and the possibility that Trump could claim executive privilege _ Sen. Kamala Harris grilled him. The Californian, a newcomer who was never Sessions' colleague, did so as Sessions sat with his fingers knitted together, his eyebrows arched.
Sessions sometimes smiled at Harris. Harris did not smile back, except when she thought Sessions wasn't answering her questions directly.
"Sir, sir, I have just a few," Harris said, affecting a professional smile as she tried to steer Sessions back to her preferred line of questioning about whether Sessions had failed to disclose meetings with any Russian nationals.
"Will you let me qualify it? If I don't qualify it, you'll accuse me of lying, so I need to be correct as best I can," Sessions said. "I'm not able to be rushed this fast." Sessions then squinted and the corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. "It makes me nervous."
As Harris persisted, the smile faded. She pressed Sessions on his basis for declining to answer questions about his conversations with Trump. But when other senators interrupted Harris to tell her to let Sessions finish his answers, he again broke into a grin.
Besides, he didn't have much longer to speak. Harris' time was about to expire.
