Jeff Sessions Irked By Crying Child: "Enough With The Histrionics" (VIDEO)

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee had a hearing on the Uniting American Families Act, a bill that will "amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in the immigration laws by permitting permanent partners of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents and to penalize immigration fraud in connection with permanent partnerships." Of course, some of the discrimination that the bill would eliminate would benefit same-sex couples, so, CONTROVERSY!

One of the people who testified in support of the bill was a woman named Shirley Tan, who is in a same-sex relationship and thus caught in the crosshairs of existing law. The New Republic's James Kirchick documents her circumstances thusly:

Testifying was Shirley Tan, a Fillipino woman who has been with her American partner for 23 years. Together, they are raising twelve-year-old twin boys. She originally left the Phillipines after suffering a violent attack from a man who murdered her mother and sister (one of the reasons why Tan does not want to return to her native country, aside from the fact that her partner and children live in the U.S., is that the man who brutalized her has since been released from prison.) Tan was originally scheduled to be deported on April 3rd, but won a reprieve after Senator Diane Feinstein introduced a private bill allowing her to stay in the country temporarily.

Almost right from the start of Tan's testimony, one of Tan's young children started crying. The committee chairman, Pat Leahy, paused the testimony and offered the child some measure of comfort. According to Kirchick, these kindly sentiments were not shared by everyone on the committee:

For most people, the sight of a 12-year-old boy in tears at the prospect of his mother being deported halfway around the world would invoke some sympathy. Unmoved, however, was Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, ranking minority member of the Committee and the only Republican to bother to attend the hearing. At the sight of the weeping boy, according to a Senate staffer who was at the hearing, Sessions leaned towards one of his aides and sighed, "Enough with the histrionics." Sessions's press secretary did not return a call seeking comment.

In fairness to Sessions, he is at least being remarkably consistent:

Q: When you hear President Obama talk about nominating someone to the court who has empathy and real-world experience, do you understand what he means?

Sessions: I don't know what he means. And it's dangerous, because I don't know what empathy means.

Ha! Clearly not!

---

Here's Tan's testimony before the committee in full:

[WATCH]

And via Queerty, here's some good documentation of what Tan is facing:

MORE:
Exclusive: Jeff Sessions Makes Children Cry [The New Republic]
Is Shirley Tan Out Of Options to Stay In the U.S.? [Queerty]
Sessions Says He's Looking For Judicial Restraint [National Journal]

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[BlackWidowPilot]

trust the only member of the "Greedy Old Perverts" to be unmoved by the sight of a crying child understandably upset at the thought of his mom being deported...

Then again, Sessions is a long-serving partisan of "the party of conservative Christian family values:"

http://www.armchairsubversive.org

Hypocrisy incarnate, thy name *remains* GOP...

Yeeeach.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[neogejo]

First, at least Sen. Sessions was there. Was the senator's presence at the hearing to be the cog in the wheel. This reality of losing a partner after so many years is frightening and this should be taken seriously by all members of the Senate.
For the comment to be made is ridiculous. A son has the right to get emotional over the plight of his mother. I'm 50 years old and I get very emotional when speaking about the future of my 80 year old mother who is in ill health. And she's not even in danger of being sent away from me across somewhere the world.
As to Sessions' comment on empathy. Even if it were meant as sarcasm, it was a stupid and heartless thing to say. If you are saying what I think you are saying you should not hold the office you are in. Resign and do the USA some good!

Now to those Senators who did not attend the hearing. I think that they should be docked a days pay when they do not show up to hearings held by the committees that they belong to. I mean there are plenty of people who need jobs in America. If the senators are not willing to do there jobs, then GET OUT and let someone else have a go at it.

[Cathar]

This should not bother the Senator. He is use to crying an whinning form his leadership- Boss Limbaugh.

[kitkatborn]

Sessions must have been raised in the Victorian era when children were to be seen and not heard.

[jayhuff2086 052609]

Mr. Linkins, I love ya, but today you disappoint this unabashed and unapologetic liberal.

For me, being a good liberal involves evaluating situations objectively. Your article falls short of the mark. The title, “Enough with the Histrionics,” essentially attributes the phrase to Republican curmudgeon, Jeff Sessions, whom I generally feel very little admiration and even less affection.

Despite listening three times to the clip, I never heard Sessions say those words.

When Shirley Tan describes her arrest by Immigration officials, her already upset son became even more distraught at the thought of one of his moms being deported to the Philippines.

Sessions (YouTube clip 5:23 to 6:19): "Ms. Tan, Ms. Tan, if we could hold on a moment. I think your son is . . . understandably is upset. If he’d, if they’d like to go in this back room . . . if you’d like to go in the back room, please . . . If you’d like to go to the back room with your mother, please. It’s alright. I have a grandson the same age. Okay. Alright. I just want you to know, young man, your mother’s a very brave woman. You should be very proud of her. Go ahead."

Rather than being irked, Sessions was empathetic, kind and very supportive.

Is your thesis really so weak you feel compelled to mimic Fox “News” in their keen ability to turn deceptions into seeming truths? You are too good a person for this.

[ahoyhoy]

THAT WAS NOT SESSIONS!!!!!

It was Leahy. The guy who was talking all along....How could you miss that?

You should apologize or delete your comment. Sessions was overheard saying that to an aide. It was not said into the microphone.
The video was included to show her testimony.
Please read more carefully before you write a novel here in the comments section. Please.

[jcampaudio]

Jayhuff2086,

Please pay attention if you want to take part in our dialogue.

[DSOTM]

Jeff Sessions wants abortions banned so the kids can grow up and be scolded by an angry old man.

[tbone32]

I have compassion for these people and I believe every last person should have equal rights, but i'm sorry, this kid was used as a prop. when you use kids as props, your credibility goes right out the window. total shame.

[jrutle]

Jeff doesn't know what empathy is because he has no ability to feel it.

[zeezan]

Jeff Sessions = typical Republican.

[stargazer13]

wow

no compassion here

move along little children

I think mean people suck !!!

[GayGrandpa]

Mean and stupid! How can this be an American story...it is time to end this! This family is beyond worthy and must be saved! What a great shame if the Senate does not act compassionately.

[marcain]

This is a non-story. Most might get annoyed when a kid cries. And his not knowing what empathy means is sarcasm. He may be a dick but all politicians, right and yes, even the left tend to lean dick-ish at times.

[tiltal]

This is a story. Some get annoyed when a kid cries. And his not knowing what empathy means is not sarcasm. Pat Leahy, how very curious, had no problem understanding why a boy who's scared to death that his mother will be deported might be craying and tried to comfort him. Man, he just got it immediately, would you believe it? See, Pat Leahy, like most people with a heart knows what empathy means.

Yes, all people can be dick-ish at times. This was not one of these times. This was a clear example of lack of empathy. Who in the world will not automatically empathize with a boy scared his mother will be deported? People who don't know empathy. This is not dick-ishness, this is a cold cold heart.

I always thought empathy was an instinct. Turns out with certain people it's not. The feeling is foreign to them.

[slinkymom]

What kind of person gets annoyed at a child who is crying out of fear of losing his mother?

[NotARhetoricalQuestion]

Just to play devil's advocate, Sessions may have meant that he didn't understand what Obama meant by "empathy" in the context of the Supreme Court nomination. What did that imply, exactly? Words can be tricky things -- that's why marketing works so well.

[Rog49Thomas]

Some times it's just so hard to be "pro life" especially after the little ones are born.

[pissdoffinohio]

honestly, repub=hartless a$$? uh YEH
dosn't no what empathy is?

geeez! CHECK PLEEZ!

[steve12]

Republicans, like Sessions, seem to only care for children if they are still not yet born. Once the kid comes out of the womb, Republicans seem to lose all interest in the life of the child. Very sad.

[JiminNC]

Except for how they might best yoke them into the machine for minimum wage and no benefits.

[Douglas Risberg]

And to fight and die in our wars

[CRA1]

Thank you Steve12. I have been trying to make this point for years to anyone who will listen. I was in DC during the pro-life protest in January and tried to discuss this issue with one of the protesters. Unfortunaelty she would not or could not reply.

[Gregor53]

That is because it is NOT on their radar screen.

[dmyron]

This may be an untrue story.......Sessions used "histrionics"? .....really?

[Sophist81]

It seems likely that he didn't even mean to say histrionics. Unless he was challenging the sincerity of the boy's crying, it seems more likely that he meant to say hysterics, referring to the uncontrolled fit of weeping.

[shaydeo]

Well, I question the sincerity of the boy's weeping. Any good litigator would have made the kid cry strictly for the dramatic effect.

Besides that, when I was 12, I wanted to get as far away from my mother as I could. I think he's crying because even if he gets away from this mother, he still has another one to deal with! Poor kid.