Wednesday 1 February 2017

Democrats unanimously reject Trump's racist pick for attorney general

Posted by sizzledfeed on 12:34

Democrats unanimously reject Trump's racist pick for attorney general
By Joan McCarter

Sen. Al Franken shows how it's done.

Jeff Sessions is going to be the next attorney general, but he cannot get there through the complicity of Democrats. Judiciary Committee Democrats have set the example, voting unanimously against him. It wasn't even all that hard.

On this day, the beginning of Black History Month, Republicans voted unanimously for Sessions, the guy who was too racist to get a federal judgeship 30 years ago. That's what Minnesota Sen. Al Franken focused on forcefully in his statement against Sessions, as well as Trump's ridiculous claim that 3 to 5 million people fraudulently voted in this election. Franken pointed out that he had asked Sessions about that claim, and Sessions said, "I've not talked to him about that in any depth."

"Now, the Department of Justice under the attorney general's leadership and direction is tasked with protecting the right to vote and prosecuting fraud. It seems unusual to me the president-elect would make such a bold claim asserting that a fraud of truly epic proportions had occurred and that he wouldn't bother to discuss it with the guy he appointed to be the nation's top cop. That didn't seem to bother Sen. Sessions. […]

When the President of the United States lies about the existence of massive widespread fraud it's the job of the attorney general to call him out on it. The attorney general has an obligation to tell like it is.”

That alone should be enough for Democrats to unanimously oppose Sessions on the floor this week. Because with Sessions on the job, they have no guarantee that their Democratic voters will even have access to the polls.