#katsa // images

[maramcna-a]

tag drop 3 / 5

[scorbleeo]

Book Chat: Graceling

Graceling Realm (Book 1) by Kristin Cashore

Source: Google Images

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po.

She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away...a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.

ISBN: 9780152063962 (2008) | Source: Goodreads

No Thoughts?

According to Goodreads, I had Graceling on my TBR list since 2012 so yeah, it took me more than a decade to get to Graceling. I have never heard a bad thing about this book and I guess that played into my expectations for Graceling. Unfortunately, this did not live up to my expectations. I am not saying I hated it but it was a rather boring reading journey for me.

Most of Graceling focused so much on world building and character introduction. The world building was done well but I would have liked a more gradual character development instead of what I got in this book. When I said this book was more character introduction, I mean exactly that. The main characters were constantly in that first phase where I was just getting to know them. It took about half the book before there was any character development. Moreover, the development of the Graced? It came so suddenly and rapidly that at times, it did not make sense, as if the development was only there because the plot called for it.

Plot-wise, it was something I usually enjoy. However, not in the way it was written in Graceling. As the book was so much of building the world and character-focused, the plot truly only came in at the last fifth of the book. I was having a tough time getting through Graceling because nothing was picking up and the pacing was too slow. Yet, when I reached the last phase of this book, it became a book I could not put down. The action, the conflict, the small plot twists. Those were what I was expecting before going into Graceling and I only got them at the end.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5)

More Young Adult Fantasy here: Half Lost (The Half Bad Trilogy, #3) | She Who Rides the Storm (The Gods-Touched Duology, #1) | Unravel the Dusk (The Blood of Stars, #2)

[chetungwan]

I unlocked something today

[image description: text conversation reading

"wait wait wait wait wait"

"Yeah?"

"Katsa handshake emoji murderbot"

"!!!!!!!!!

You're RIGHT!?!?!"

"Dry sarcastic narrative voice masking the fact that this character is doing the most batshit things in order to protect people. Also thinking that they themselves are a monster"

End description]

[all-peristeronic]

[Image description: Photo of a passage from Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore. The text reads, “‘But if you’ve changed your mind about a promise,’ Katsa said desperately, ‘you must tell me. Otherwise, you’re breaking the promise,and I’m left feeling that you’ve lied. How is it that I should need to explain this to you? This is the sort of thing you usually have to explain to me!’”]

Absolutely obsessed with, number one, the comedy of that last line, number two, the implications of how much Katsa has grown as a person and in her relationship with Po since the previous book. Healthy communicating!

[a-duck-with-a-book]

REVIEW // Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3) by Kristin Cashore

★★★★★

// Fire //

TW for Bitterblue: Suicide, Self-harm, Torture, Rape This is the story after the story. What happens after the evil king is defeated, and the kingdom must stitch itself back together? The heroes have bravely defeated the villain, but the story isn't over yet. Now, a kingdom must put itself back together after decades of violence and trauma. In Bitterblue, Cashore explores this theme with such complexity and grace, weaving a story of trauma, growth, and forgiveness.

// image: official cover art by Kuri Huang //

There are so many things I loved about this book that it would take me ages to write them all down (and I definitely don't have the energy anymore, seeing as I just finished writing this review and then immediately afterwards accidentally deleted it). By far my favorite book in the series, Bitterblue contains a variety of characters, both new and returning, that are fully fleshed out and three-dimensional. There are several LGBTQ characters and couples, both f/f and m/m, including a bisexual love interest (finally!). (I have tried to include no spoilers below, but proceed with caution!) One of the main themes I wanted to discuss is that of physical touch . Before his death, Leck used his powers to impose harm, both physical and mental, on all those he could ensnare. Any mention of him throughout the book contains some mention of his penchant for torture. All instances of physical touch related to Leck, therefore, have a negative connotation. The way that Bitterblue herself deals with touch is a fascinating parallel to her journey to establish herself as a queen after Leck's reign of terror, in a time when many scramble to move forward, others find themselves imprisoned in the past, and many, both peasants and nobles, seek out that which Leck took from them. When Bitterblue is compared to Leck, her touch is violent, causing pain. This happens when she slaps the same character that accuses her of being too much like her father, in the midst of her own internal crisis at her apparent mirroring of Leck's actions. Throughout the book, when she is trying to work through her own traumas, depression, and PTSD, she desperately seeks out comforting physical contact (especially from Katsa and Po). One of the most interesting occurrences, in my opinion, is when she is lost and confused in the fog that Leck left in his wake, and in that moment reaches out to touch a piece of dough, soft and warm, which helps her escape his snares. I really only had to complaints with the book, but I think both mirror the storyline so I can easily look past them: 1) the beginning of the story is a bit confusing and overwhelming I found it hard to keep up and get the facts straight, but I think this is exactly how Bitterblue felt. Frustrated and confused, she receives contradictory information and wonders who exactly it is she can trust. 2) the first two parts of the book were quite repetitive and somewhat boring. Bitterblue is in her office. She doesn't like her duties. Her advisors avoid her questions. She sneaks out. she goes to hear a story. She meets up with her friends. They give her a starkly different view of her kingdom than her advisors. Rinse and repeat for about 200 pages. Again, this is quite reflective of Bitterblue's frustrations, and she voices this several times.

[byastrodust]

I’ve read Graceling by Kristin Cashore so you don’t have to

I wanted to love this book, I really did. My Mum loved the main character and the love story, so I was confident it will be a good read. Well, it wasn’t.

Here you have the main character, Katsa, who’s a graceling whose grace is fighting and she is used by her uncle, the king to carry our his punishments. I won’t go into the details because I simply cannot be bothered to waste time on it.

Here’s why I hated the book (in my usual bulletpoint messy delivery)

Katsa is intended to be a stong powerful female mc, instead she is a bully

every bit of inconvenience or annoyance she contemplates violence

seriously, if you look at Katsa a way she doesn’t appreciate she will image knocking all your teeth out

at one point she got upset by the king and the male MC tried to calm her and reason with her, in a total non-condescending manner and Katsa got annoyed so she slapped him across the room worrying she might’ve broken his jaw

this dude, Po, end up as her love interest

now imagine if Katsa was the dude and Po the female. we would be boycotting this book, instead I’m expected to applaud the feminism ™️, the gender nonconformity ™️ (pls @ me, I’ve written a whole thesis on gender nonconforming female fantasy/dystopian characters)

Po is a graceling too but only two people know about what his real grace is, it’s all for self protection, because he would be used and hunted if people knew about his real ability

so Katsa, our dear Katsa flips the fuck out when she figures it out, because Po had the AUDACITY not to tell her his biggest secret after hanging out for a couple of months. I mean THE AUDACITY.

Katsa doesn’t want to marry because it would tie her to her husband and strip her from her freedom

Katsa doesn’t want kids, and never really explains why but she doesn’t want them

she hates dressing up, getting her hair done, doing hot girl shit

Katsa is essentially a stereotypical misogynistic man at heart wrapped in a female character because feminism UwU

Katsa’s entire character chews on feminism, swallows it, half-digests it, regurgitates and chews one more time before serving it to you for dinner (you’re welcome for the image)

Katsa amd Po had no chemistry at all, I am unconvinced they love each other and all their physical contact was cringy as hell

Po loses his sight bc why exactly? so I will feel bad for him? so Katsa can pity the damsel in distress a little more?

the pacing was so confusing, many things left unexplored (khm Raffin/Bann) but I’m not complaining bc one another chapter and I would’ve never finished the book

can you tell I hated Katsa more fiercely than I ever hated any character?

honestly, she’s a bully who relies on aggression and violence to get her way and she moans about being a monster but doesn even move a single finger to change her fucked up mindset. Again, every time someone does something that doesn’t serve her interest she wants to hit them and hit them hard

oh even Po, the man she supposedly loves... he basically gives her his castle and titles and shit bc he wants her to be secure in case he dies in the woods (where she left him to die btw, anyway that plotline made no sense at all) and when she finds out she’s like “I will kill him and hit him bc he had THE AUDACITY to do something nice for me. fuck him, really”

A BIG HUGE FUCK YOU TO KATSA

whoever thinks that Katsa is a strong female character and this is how feminine power should be exlpored in literature, hmu I’ll give you a list of titles that actually portray women as powerful without turning them into a internalised-misogynistic bullies

on the flip side, I loved Raffin and it was a huge bummer nothing ever came out (😏) of his gay subplot. give me the damn Raffin x Bann spin-off.

If you liked this book, good for you! I would’ve probably liked the premis and the plot if not for the atrocious main character. But we win some and we lose some and my past 6 book track record was so great I was bound to read something awful.

[fythesevenkingdoms]

Don’t you mess with a little girl’s dream ‘Cause she’s liable to grow up mean I’ve got your pawns and your bishops and castles All inside the palm of my hand [Caption: graphic of the three protagonist of the first three books in the Seven Kingdoms series, overlaid with the woods (Katsa, with an image of Lyrica Okano), a violin and sheet music (Fire, with an image of Marpessa Dawn lying in bed with a smile), and a crown (Bitterblue, with an image of Aiysha Hart wearing a crown).]

[itwouldbeajoytobringyoutea]

Here are my Graceling ladies! I’m mostly happy with how these turned out, especially since I still am figuring out how proportions and perspective mix. I used a bunch of references and inspiration images, so if anyone wants to see any just let me know!

[jinlian]

i’ve always loved that graceling -- and the other books as well -- don’t actually end with the protagonists’ personal struggles solved and wrapped up in neat little boxes. they end with each of the women on paths to inner strength and support. and i love it because it feels so real, so relatable. katsa overcomes a lot in graceling regarding her self-image and her struggles with self-perceived monstrosity, and while she ends it with the knowledge that she is better than she has always believed and she has a path for redemption, it’s not solved. her defeat over leck was a genuinely triumphant moment, but she’s left with even more to sort through regarding how she got there -- namely throwing that knife to keep him from talking. nobody solves it for her. nobody gives her the answer for her to accept without question and never have a problem again. people help her and she learns to accept that help, but it’s still very much about herself and who she is. and no one can understand that better than katsa.

because growth and self-discovery is something that never ends, that doesn’t reach a conclusion. bitterblue sees depression and fear and recovery that’s still very much happening almost a decade after the end of her father’s cruel reign. she finds strength, but she also ends the book knowing there’s much more to come and room to grow. and that’s okay. it’s important that she found that path at all, that itself is triumphant, is encouraging. the books end with feelings of hope and a look toward the future and just encouragement that you too can find your own path. you don’t have to solve it. things are hard, but you’re not alone and you can be better. i really love that

[mirrix]

Title:  Fire Author: Kristin Cashore

Thoughts:  So I discussed with the last book being just kind of meh on it. I did not feel at all meh about this one despite it having a great deal of the same basic elements.  It’s got telepathy, it’s got at least one antagonist from the previous book, it’s got a woman with a power that people covet and want to use, it’s got a woman who does not want children, it’s got some reluctant romance.  But despite the commonalities between the two stories this one was much more interesting to me.

That might be partly due to it only having one narrator as opposed to the full voice cast of the previous book.  Normally I like full voice casts but that one was so stiff and wooden that having one, more flexible voice was much preferable.  So that was definitely a point in its favor.  I also really liked the nuances of Fire, the titular character.  I feel like her Monsterousness and the way it affects people is a really interesting way to explore the numerous double standards that exist between sexes in a subtle way. Katsa had some of that too but she was very much a “strong female character” in the way that (usually) men tend to write.  Ya know, she studied the blade instead of flirting and she has no interest in romance until a specific male character comes along and then BAM!  Romance!  She doesn’t care about her appearance and is constantly getting her dresses and hair missed up.  She’s strong in that she mostly embodies masculine qualities. And there’s nothing wrong wi  the that in and of itself but it does tend to be pervasive.

Fire in contrast is very feminine. She does archery and hunt occasionally but for the most part her dress, her pursuits, her interests like of more with the feminine. And yet she is also held apart because of what she is, through no fault of her own. Men treat her very differently from regular women but all her powers really do is apology the way they already feel about women.  And it contrasts in interesting ways with how her father is described.  I really enjoyed the mystery as well and the romance felt more believable too. All around good stuff and a much more subtle handling of gender/sex issues than I’ve seen in a lot of stories.

Also, beginning to think Cashore has like, a thing for telepathy....it’s not not there...

Recommend:  Yes!

Cover Image Source

[eruditetyro]

so much of katsa lived in her fingers and toes and what she knew she could do with them and the part of young me that had been doing classical ballet since like age 2 or 3 or something was like damn.... yeah. ofc we could go on a whole rant here about how being in the ballet world is a GREAT way to get body image issues so i’m really glad that the method of self-conception i took away from dance only resulted in having difficulty with astral projection

[blindmanspuff]

Cigar News: US Court of Appeals Strikes Down Warning Labels

#Cigar News: US Court of Appeals Strikes Down Warning Labels @PCA1933 #cigars

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has unanimously struck down warning labels on cigars. They noted flaws in the FDA’s Deeming Rule regulating cigars and said that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) did not do enough work to show an effect of large cigar warning labels on reducing smoking rates.

Judge Gregory G. Katsas notes in the opinion, “The Tobacco Control Act…

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/column-what-a-vampire-slayer-taught-me-about-feminine-strength/

COLUMN: What a vampire slayer taught me about feminine strength

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was a TV show that aired from 1996 to 2003. It was announced that a reboot is currently in the works.  Movie Stills Database Buy Photos

An announcement this summer that a reboot is in the works has given me the chance to reflect on a favorite from my teenage years — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” a TV series that follows a girl turned vampire slayer, plucked from the normalcy of high school and chosen to battle evil.

“Buffy” is funny, weird and punches you right in the gut when it wants to. It’s chock-full of beautifully witty dialogue, each word of each line perfectly tailored to each character. It’s also riddled with allegories for societal threats that have been pored over by fans and academics alike. But what really draws me to the series is its characters, especially those of the female variety.

Before my time, women were never really in leading roles. As I grew up, I saw women slowly inching into the spotlight, even though at first it was as Bella Swan types — weak, bland and having no independent goals outside of being attractive to men. But eventually I was spoon fed another brand of young adult heroine — the stone cold badasses.

These characters are lethal. They wield swords like salad forks, chop off enemies’ heads with a simple flick of the wrist and beat up 24 armed guards twice their size without breaking a sweat. They are strong because they “fight like men” and have no personality outside of their physical prowess. They’re fighting machines — unemotional and lacking in any vulnerability as they leave feminine wiles in the dust.

Max from “Maximum Ride,” Katniss from “Hunger Games” and Katsa from “Graceling” became what I thought strength was, and they shaped the way I viewed femininity.

Maximum Ride especially became my blueprint of what a woman should be. Inspired by her unfeminine ways, I swore off dresses, spit on silly emotions, and ran around with a gang of neighborhood boys who proved their daring by hurling fistfuls of dog feces. I also turned up my nose at girls who liked shopping and painting their nails, reveling at being told I wasn’t “like other girls.” 

And quickly, my strength became something tough, hard, cold and “masculine.”

While I did genuinely have some traditionally boyish interests, it’s easy to tell that part of me wanted to throw away any feminine interests or desires. To be brave and heroic, to make a difference, I felt I should think and act like a conventional man, all because of characters that equated femininity with weakness and masculinity with strength.

These characters were lazy attempts at strong female characters, and they were patronizing. But Buffy was the first time I saw girliness and strength side by side, and she taught me traditionally female characteristics showed strength and should be valued, too.

Buffy loves shoes and cheerleading. She turns down military garb for hot pink halter tops while patrolling graveyards for ghouls. She loves shopping after long days of stabbing baddies and she throttles demons by the throat, even though her petite, blonde look would deem her the first to die in a horror movie.

Buffy is the chosen one, that reluctant hero who struggles with the weight of her destiny and desire to live a life not full of suffering, but no matter how hard things got, she was resilient. We also saw the wisecracking valley girl at her weakest, when her loved ones were torn from her, when she was isolated because of who she was, when she held the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Yet, it’s these emotions and her love for her friends, her compassion, her ability to inspire good in others, not the fact she beats up vampires, that give her strength. 

Other “Buffy” characters, including Willow Rosenberg with her powerful intellect, Cordelia Chase with her superior sass and Anya Jenkins with her thirst for revenge, all also embraced varied degrees of traditionally feminine characteristics often devalued in other stories. 

This isn’t to say all female characters should be girly. It’s great to have unfeminine female characters to show the full spectrum from feminine to masculine that varies for all of us. But when unfeminine heroines are the only image of strength we see, it becomes a problem. We need to show feminine characteristics are nothing to be ashamed of and are, in fact, something we should embrace if we see them in ourselves.

Even two decades after its release date and who knows how long before its reboot releases, “Buffy” continues to remind me that you can wear a dress and kick butt, too.

Like what you’re reading? Support independent, award-winning college journalism on this site. Donate here.

Swift will be performing in Indianapolis on Sept. 15. 

The novel explores class differences, forbidden love and hatred. 

All fans should be able to mourn the loss of Mac Miller.

Source: http://www.idsnews.com/article/2018/09/column-what-a-vampire-slayer-taught-me-about-feminine-strength

[haberihbarhatti]

Medya, çatışmaları ve kayıpları nasıl aktarmalı?

Tüm haber ve son dakika gelişmelerini Haber İhbar Hattı ile anlık takip edin! Haber için önce http://www.haberihbarhatti.com/2018/medya-catismalari-ve-kayiplari-nasil-aktarmali/2962/

Medya, çatışmaları ve kayıpları nasıl aktarmalı?

Telif hakkı Getty Images

Image caption

Türkiye sınırından Suriye’deki çatışmaları görüntüleyen kameramanlar

Tarafsız ve bağımsız habercilik, “Çatışmadaki askerlerimizi desteklemeliyiz” düşüncesi kadar, bunun karşısındaki “Çatışmaya hiç girmemeliydik” itirazını da dikkate almayı gerektirir.Olguların tespit edilmesi ve yorumlanmasının da çatışmanın herhangi bir tarafını kayırmayacak şekilde yapılması gerekir.İngiltere’de BBC, pek çok kişi tarafından “ulusal yayıncı” olarak kabul edilir ve çatışmalarda genellikle vatansever bir dil benimsemesi, İngiliz askerlerinden bahsederken “askerlerimiz” gibi ifadeleri kullanması ve savaşı İngilizlerin bakış açısıyla yorumlaması yönünde baskıya maruz kalır.Fakat BBC’nin güvenilir bir haber kaynağı olmasını sağlayan şey tarafsızlığıdır. Bu yüzden BBC her zaman “İngiliz birlikleri”, ”Amerikan askerleri”, ”Pakistan ordusu”, “Türk askerleri” gibi ifadeler kullanır.Bütün yayıncıların, özellikle de kayıplardan bahsederken hassasiyet göstermesi şarttır. Ve hiçbir haberin askerlerin güvenliğini tehlikeye atmaması gerekir.İzleyiciler ve okurlar arasında savaş karşıtı çok sayıda kişi de vardır ve bunlar da, bazı askeri detayların çatışmayı etkileme ihtimali bitene kadar yayımlanmayacağını bilir.Fakat herhangi bir nedenle haberin sansürlenmesi veya tamamını aktarılamaması durumunda muhabir bunu açıkça anlatmalı ve nedenlerini de aktarmalıdır.İzleyicilere ve okurlara bilinenlerin yanısıra, henüz bilinmeyenler veya cevabı bulunamayanlar da dürüstlükle açıklanmalıdır.Askeri eylemlerden kaynaklanan zayiatYaşamını yitirenlerin veya yaralananların sayıları veya isimleri, bu kişilerin yakınları yetkililer tarafından bilgilendirilmeden önce duyurulmamalıdır.Çatışmalarda kaçınılmaz olarak, yakınların haberinin olup olmadığını öğrenemeden aktarılması gereken büyük olaylar da olacaktır. Bu durumlarda ise olabildiğince net ve hassas olmak gereklidir.Haberin tonuÇatışmalarda insanların çektikleri acılar sakin, serinkanlı ve tarafsız bir şekilde aktarılmalıdır.Ölüm ve yaralanma görüntüleri ıstırap vericidir. Ölü ve yaralıların görüntülerinin veya ölüm anı görüntülerinin büyük bir özenle ele alınması gerekir.Muhabirin görevi savaşın gerçekliklerini sterilize etmek olmasa da, düşüncesizce veya ses getirmek için rahatsız edici görüntüler yayınlamak da değildir.SöyleşilerCephede veya cephe yakınlarında savaşçılarla söyleşi yapmak, hakkında iyi düşünülmesi gereken bir konudur.Savaşçıların söyledikleri çatışmaya insani bir boyut katsa da onların gerçeği tam olarak kavrayamayacak halde veya şok içinde olduğunu unutmamak gerekir.Bazı durumlarda yakınlarını kaybedenler basına konuşmak ve acılarını anlatmak için muhabirleri davet edebilir. Öyle durumlarda haberi aktarırken muhabirin davet edildiğini belirtmesi önemlidir.Bu tür söyleşilerde sabırlı olmak, karşıdakinin düşüncelere dalmasına ve sessizliğe gömülmesine izin vermek, karşınızdakinin bir belgesel ya da drama oyuncusu değil bir insan olduğunu unutmamak gerekir.

kaynak: Medya, çatışmaları ve kayıpları nasıl aktarmalı?

Anadolu Ajansı, DHA, İHA tarafından geçilen tüm yerel haberler bölümünde Haberihbarhatti.com editörlerinin hiçbir editoryal müdahalesi olmadan otomatik olarak ajans kanallarından geldiği şekliyle yer almaktadır. Bu alanda yer alan haberlerin hepsinin hukuki muhatabı haberi geçen websiteleri ve ajanslardır.

Görüş, öneri ya da şikayetiniz paylaşmak isterseniz, İletişim Formunu doldurarak bize ulaştırabilirsiniz. En kısa sürede değerlendirip size geri döneceğiz.

Tüm gelişmelerden haberdar olmak için Facebook sayfamızı takip edin!

Kaynak: http://www.haberihbarhatti.com/2018/medya-catismalari-ve-kayiplari-nasil-aktarmali/2962/

[oldguardaudio]

PowerLine -> Australia's Tony Abbott: On Global Warming, Dare to Doubt + The Important Story You’re Not Hearing Much About

PowerLine -> Australia’s Tony Abbott: On Global Warming, Dare to Doubt + The Important Story You’re Not Hearing Much About

PowerLine -> Australia’s Tony Abbott: On Global Warming, Dare to Doubt + The Important Story You’re Not Hearing Much About

Powerline image at HoaxAndChange

Daily Digest

Tony Abbott: On Global Warming, Dare to Doubt

Confirm Greg Katsas

The Important Story You’re Not Hearing Much About

Madness at Reed

The case of Fusion GPS

Tony Abbott: On Global Warming, Dare to Doubt

Posted: 18 Oct 2017…

[tortuga-aak]

One of Trump's top judicial nominees got grilled on Capitol Hill over his involvement with Mueller's Russia probe

Alex Wong/Getty Images

One of President Donald Trump's top judicial nominees faced a bevy of questions Tuesday over his involvement as a White House lawyer with some of the administration's most controversial programs, in addition to special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

Greg Katsas, the deputy White House counsel whom Trump nominated to be a judge on the powerful DC Circuit Court of Appeals, told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing that he worked on the White House's response to Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference. He also said he was involved with work on controversial policies and initiatives that could well end up before the court he is tapped to possibly sit on in some form. Those policies include the travel ban, the voter fraud commission, and the decision to phase out protections from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for young undocumented immigrants.

Those issues caused some to wonder just how independent Katsas, who served in the Trump administration since January, could be when faced with cases involving the Trump administration. Katsas said he would recuse himself from matters related to Mueller's investigation that he personally worked on, but did not commit to a recusal for all potential cases stemming from the Mueller probe, saying he would consider the facts of the case before making a decision.

During an exchange with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking member of the committee, Katsas said he has "given legal advice on a few discrete legal questions arising out of the" Mueller investigation.

"I have no knowledge of any underlying facts regarding Russian interference," he added.

When pressed by Feinstein to "tell us what those legal questions were," Katsas said he could not, saying that the topics were both confidential and covered by attorney-client and executive privilege.

"I have not until today been asked to reveal the substance of advice that I may have provided," he said, adding that going into detail could undermine the Mueller investigation.

"I don't think I could properly talk about issues that could signal what he is looking at, the scope, the focus, the progress of his investigations," he said. "And I want I want to be very careful not to say anything that inadvertently undermines his work."

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse did not think much of that explanation.

"What on Earth could you possibly say there that would undermine the work of the special counsel?" the Rhode Island Democrat asked.

Richard Painter, the top White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, echoed Whitehouse in an interview with Business Insider.

"That's nonsense," he said.

Painter said he wrote a letter to Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on the concerns that should be addressed with Katsas in the hearing. Painter, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, said Katsas could assert executive privilege and avoid answering some of the questions he was faced with, but the Senate also is not under any obligation to confirm him.

In recent days, Trump has been pointing to the Senate's slow pace of confirmation for his many judicial nominees, saying it's "not fair."

"For the purpose of evaluating his character and fitness, it's important to know the areas where the White House may very well have acted inappropriately," he said. "Evaluating his character and fitness — that's very relevant."

Katsas, who served as a top official in the Justice Department during Bush's presidency, received high praise from conservative judicial activists.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network, which has been aggressively backing Trump's judicial nominees, said Katsas is "simultaneously a brilliant and talented lawyer and an unfailingly kind and humble man."

"A seasoned and well-respected Supreme Court advocate, Katsas will uphold the Constitution and apply the law fairly," she said. "I hope for a speedy confirmation for the latest of President Trump's stellar judicial nominees."

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond professor who is an expert on judicial nominations, told Business Insider in an email that Katsas' limited answers on his involvement in the Russia investigation doesn't "seem like a major issue."

Tobias added that is because the White House lawyer "suggested that he had given legal advice to a few people, but we don't know who they were or the nature of the advice so you can't tell definitively."

"My guess is that the Senate Judiciary Committee will approve him on a party line vote," he said.

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