For some reason, GOP senators keep interrupting Sen. Kamala Harris

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CNN)

last updated 14 June 2017

We know that Sen. Kamala Harris' (D-Calif.) questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday made Sessions nervous, because he told us so.

Luckily for Sessions, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stepped in to save him from Harris and her nerve-racking questions, as she was trying to get the attorney general to explain why he was not answering questions from her and other senators. Harris, a former California attorney general and prosecutor, was the only senator interrupted by a colleague during the hearing, as some people noticed, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who did his own grilling of Sessions on Tuesday.

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And, interestingly enough, Harris was also interrupted by a GOP colleague a week earlier, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the witness.

Maybe Harris is interrupted by her peers because she insists on getting a yes or no answer from loquacious witnesses, or because she asks questions too rapidly, or too incisively, or too forcefully. Former Trump campaign communications adviser Jason Miller had his own theory, suggesting on CNN that the junior senator from California was being "hysterical" during her questioning. Kirsten Powers did not buy that explanation.

Thanks to the magic of video, you can watch the entire exchange and decide for yourself.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.