Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” when the panel was discussing that twice in recent Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) was interrupted during her questioning of the witnesses, co-host Mika Brzezinski said it was “pathetic.”

Co-host Joe Scarborough brought up the subject, saying, “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, but the junior senator from California, Senator Harris, once again called out by men on the committee because they thought that she was too assertive. Last night on a network she was called hysterical when, of course, Ron Wyden was very aggressive. Nobody called him hysterical or condemned him … Jeff Sessions was quite colorful. Jeff Sessions was colorful and indignant. ‘How dare you, sir? Beauregard doesn’t answer questions like that.’ Nobody called him hysterical. Yet, Kamala Harris is called hysterical for the second week in a row.”

Brzezinski said, “A secondary story given the nature of the questions being asked, but an important story. The differences between what is expected and what is allowed between men and women, even on the national stage when the cameras are on them and there should be at least an attempt at equality is pathetic. Kamala Harris will be our guest this morning and I can’t wait to talk to her about that and also about the questions she’s trying to ask in the middle of being told that she’s rude by a lot of rude, white older men. Having said that, Kasie Hunt, what is the reaction on Capitol Hill? Are you hearing from Republicans, and what are you hearing behind the scenes?”

Kasie Hunt responded, “First, to your point of what you were talking about with Kamala Harris, one thing I think that is happening is she’s being elevated, she’s having a moment, I think, as Democrats are searching around for who their next leader is going to be, it has been something that has caught a lot of attention—the fact she’s now stepping out, coming on this show. She hadn’t done things like that before this kind of started to happen. She’s getting her feet under her on the national stage. I think it’s honestly going to backfire on Republicans if they keep it up.”

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