What the "manterrupters" have done for Harris is put her in the spotlight and the attention she has gotten so far is a boost for her career.
She grew up watching her African American dad and Indian American mother protest for civil rights in Berkeley and took that fierce fight for justice with her to law school.
It is absolutely crucial to note, as Brzezinski did, that the nature of the insult was two-fold: Harris is a Black woman being rudely and singularly admonished by the white men around her.
It's the resume of a legal activist, not unlike many others in Congress, where she is now a freshman senator from California. She is also a woman.
While such attributes are often rewarded in Washington, they're not going over so well for Harris - at least with some male colleagues and cable commentators. In terms of how they are deployed, this covers the spectrum from stealthy to blatant, from a carefully worded nice-nasty memo emailed to one's underperforming staff at the job, to a dagger-sharp side eye shot strategically at the assistant principal who has called you in to discuss why your 8-year-old daughter was so "aggressive" in insisting that Chaddington Whiteson shut up and let her finish talking during class.
BRZEZINSKI: This is a secondary story given the seriousness of the nature of the questions being asked, but it's an important story. Unfriendly witnesses are inclined to string out their answers and let the clock run.
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Mika, another interesting thing that happened, and I have a feeling that you may want to talk about this because you talked about it before.
Mr Sessions testified publicly as part of the committee's ongoing investigation into whether Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election. "She was purely out there to shout down [Sessions]".
Apparently, that made Sessions a little nervous-and so a hook was born.
Sessions was the latest administration official to refuse to answer questions from senators about their interactions with the president on topics related to any relationship Trump campaign and transition-team members had with Russian officials or businessmen.
Senators on the committee, including Harris, were each allotted time to ask Sessions questions.
HARRIS: Did you not consult it before you came before this committee knowing we would ask you questions about it?
At that moment, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
"The witness should be allowed to answer the question", McCain said.
Sessions then went on to describe the principle, at length.
She was cut off by Sen.
- Here is a partial transcript of Harris' exchange with Sessions. Sessions was able to run out the clock without explaining just how he learned about the policy he cited for not answering questions.
Deputy attorney general says he sees no reason to fire special counsel
Mueller served as Federal Bureau of Investigation director from 2001 to 2013 under both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.
Is the policy is written down, she asked?
Most of Sessions' answers to questions on his conversations with President Trump about the Russian Federation investigation read along the lines, "I'm not able to discuss with you, to confirm or deny, the nature of private conversations I had with the president". I am asking when you knew ...
"It's not a short answer, senator", Rosenstein said.
Sessions said earlier that he was not trying to stonewall, but his former colleagues in the senate helped him do precisely that.
MCCAIN: The witness should be allowed to answer the question. Beauregard does not answer questions like that.' And nobody called him hysterical?
"Will the senator suspend?"
BURR: "Senators will allow the chair to control the hearing". Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the committee, and Sen. Kamala Harris' (D-CA) questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
Burr's intervention was disrespectful to Harris and counter to the public interest.
She was even told to show more "courtesy" during her questioning.
"I thought so", she responded.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens to testimony from top. "I don't think Sen. Ron Wyden was, would you say that?"
At Comey's hearing last week, he revealed that Jeff Sessions "lingered" when President Trump asked that he and Comey be left alone in the Oval Office for a private meeting where the president said, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go". "I don't think that Senator Wyden was really trying to get to the bottom of answers either".
Powers: "But he wasn't hysterical, she was".
Lord chimed in, saying, "Hysteria is a neutral quality".
Harris's treatment has not gone unnoticed.
If Republican men cannot handle a strong, intelligent, and unflappable woman like Harris without resorting to insults and silencing, perhaps they are the ones who could use a lesson in "courtesy".
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