Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions on Tuesday whether he has ever received an award from the Ku Klux Klan.
Blumenthal, D-Conn., began his line of questioning to his Senate colleague by bringing up awards Sessions has received from the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the latter of which Blumenthal noted is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Given that you did not disclose a number of those awards, are there any other awards from groups that have similar kinds of ideological negative views of immigrants or of African-Americans or Muslims or others, including awards that you may have received from the Ku Klux Klan?” Blumenthal asked.
Sessions, who earlier in the day called accusations that he is sympathetic to the Klan “damnably false charges,” said he wouldn’t take one from Henry Hays, the Klansman Sessions was involved with prosecuting for the lynching of a black man as a U.S. attorney in Alabama.
“Well, I won’t receive it from Henry Hays, I’ll tell you that. He no longer exists,” Sessions said firmly. “No, I wouldn’t take a Klan — award from the Klan. So, I would just say that I received hundreds of awards.”
Sessions also said he doesn’t “defer to the Southern Poverty Law Center” as the “final authority” on what constitutes a radical group.
“I would just say to you, I have no motive in denying that I received those awards, as [was] probably publicly published when it happened, and I’ve received hundreds, multiple hundreds of awards over my career, as I’m sure you have,” Sessions said.
