Panel Chair Kept Calling Hope Hicks 'Ms. Lewandowski'

She refused to answer 155 questions
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2019 1:51 AM CDT
Panel Chair Kept Calling Hope Hicks 'Ms. Lewandowski'
Former White House communications director Hope Hicks is seen behind closed doors during an interview with the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 19, 2019.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Former President Trump aide Hope Hicks was blocked by White House lawyers from answering most questions at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday—but one she would probably have been happy to answer is "Can you confirm your name?" According to a transcript of the closed-door hearing released Thursday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the committee's Democratic chair, repeatedly flubbed Hicks' name, calling her "Ms. Lewandowski" three times, the Daily Beast reports. After the third time, Hicks, rumored to have dated former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, reminded him: "My name is Ms. Hicks." More:

  • She balked at 155 questions. Politico reports that Hicks refused to answer 155 questions relating to her time as White House communications director, with two White House lawyers present objecting every time questions touched on her service in the Trump administration and transition team. Questions about the Mueller investigations went unanswered, as did questions about matters already on the public record and even a question about where her desk was located in the White House, though she did answer a question about where she usually ate lunch.

  • "Never asked to tell big lies." The questions Hicks answered mostly involved the Trump campaign. She told lawmakers she had "never been asked to lie about matters of substance or consequence," and the only lies she told on behalf of Trump were "white lies" about matters like availability, CNN reports.
  • Foreign assistance. After the hearing, Nadler said Hicks "made clear that she understood the president to be serious when he said that he would accept foreign interference in our elections," reports Reuters. "She also made clear that even she knew that such foreign assistance should be rejected and reported to the FBI," he added.
  • A waste of time? After a day of questioning, lawmakers had learned little that was new about the Trump campaign or other matters, the AP reports. The committee "took eight hours to find out what really most of us knew at the beginning," Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the panel, said afterward.
(Soon after the hearing began, Democrats called Hicks' stonewalling "ridiculous.")

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X