Hope Hicks testified in a closed-door hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, and an expert said her body language was very revealing.
"Oh my god, she's enjoying this," body language expert Patti Wood told Refinery29 as she watched a brief video of Hicks walking down a hallway and ignoring reporters' questions. "That's so fascinating. But I'm not incredibly surprised."
Wood, author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, said Hicks seemed to bask in the attention as she walked into the hearing, during which she reportedly enraged House Democrats by stonewalling their questions about the Mueller Report. (They now say they expect to take Hicks to court.)
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Hope Hicks arrives for her closed-door testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and does not respond to a question from @MaryKBruce on whether she plans to answer questions about her time at the White House. https://t.co/Nsmf3HWUXg pic.twitter.com/mPpz0zGFjL
— ABC News (@ABC) June 19, 2019
After Hicks turns the corner in the beginning of the video, she smiles and her eyes "do a flirty look-away," said Wood. "This is likely to be a true, spontaneous emotion. After a big smile — a 'look at me' smile — and a wave, she takes on a 'mask,' she tries to suppress the smile and you can see her struggle with that. But even when she puts that mask on, she doesn't close her so-called 'body windows,' she doesn't turn away." It's also telling, she added, that she walks slightly apart from her lawyers, seemingly enjoying the attention she's getting solo.
Her attention-seeking body language is a different story from her reportedly secretive behavior in the actual hearing. "Basically, she can say her name," Rep. Pramila Jayapal told The Daily Beast.