Understand that when you’re dealing with a situation in which truth matters, literalness becomes very important.
I am reminded by this observation of Adam Schiff's parody - while in committee - of the president's phone call with Ukraine's President Zelensky. If Schiff needed to seem as if he were after the truth, he could ill-afford to misrepresent the truth. There was no room for anything but the literal truth, yet Schiff appeared to steer clear of it.
