Selective Outrage
Is Sen. Kamala Harris the victim of partisan politics, or its savvy practitioner and beneficiary?
As has been widely reported, freshman senator Kamala Harris got off to a bumpy start in the Washington spotlight, but she quickly regained her footing during the nationally televised Senate Intelligence Committee hearings in early June, earning kudos from liberal journalists for her hectoring of various witnesses. Reporters lauded Harris’s aggressive questioning of Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers as a “high-octane performance.” A Politico headline was typical of the Left’s newfound appreciation for Harris’s attack-dog role: “Trump hearings launch Kamala Harris.”
The more vociferous Harris, a former prosecutor, became in her grilling of witnesses, the more fawning the media coverage. Harris’s questioning escalated to undisguised antagonism, rude interruptions, and transparent grandstanding, to the point that she openly browbeat Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions when they appeared before the committee. Harris’s discourteous antics prompted Republican committee chairman Richard Burr to intervene, insisting that Harris allow the witnesses to answer her questions.
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