A point I forgot to put in today’s Morning Jolt: Because the vast majority of members of Congress see a high-profile hearing as a rare moment to speak with a large portion of the country watching, questioning during hearings is rarely as fruitful as people hoped beforehand.
There’s just too much temptation for members to try to create a YouTube moment, to give speeches in the form of questions, and to spend their limited time either attacking the credibility of the witness or defending the witness from the criticism from other members. A moment ago, Sheila Jackson Lee rattled off a lengthy list of facts selected to support her position that Trump is legally the equivalent of Mephistopheles and asked Mueller, “Is that correct?” Almost all of Mueller’s answers amounted to simply responding, “That is correct.” Republican Jim Sensenbrenner continued the same “Is that correct?” approach to questioning.
Kate Benner, the New York Times Department of Justice reporter observed, “Rather than Mueller reading and explaining his work, this hearing is turning more to lawmakers reading the report while Mueller nods.”
We saw it when Hillary Clinton testified about Benghazi, we saw it during the Jim Comey hearing, and we saw it during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. (The rare exception was when Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans let Rachel Mitchell question Christine Blasey Ford.) Some members of Congress have legal experience and some can question effectively, but most are far more interested in letting the audience watching know what they think than in learning anything new from the witness.