Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions sought to shoot down accusations that he is racially insensitive and disavowed the Ku Klux Klan at his attorney general confirmation hearings on Tuesday.
“Let me address another issue straight on, I was accused in 1986 of failing to protect the voting rights of African-Americans … and of condemning civil rights advocates and organizations and even harboring, amazingly, sympathies for the KKK. These are damnably false charges,” Sessions said at the hearing. “I abhor the Klan and what it represents and its hateful ideology.”
Amid multiple protesters disrupting Sessions’ hearing, the senator told the Senate Judiciary Committee that it should trust him.
Sessions told the members of the committee they already knew the values he believed in and principles he stood for, as protesters in the room on Tuesday sought to provide a different message.
“I come before you today as a colleague who has worked with you for years, and with some of you for 20 years. You know who I am,” Sessions said at the hearing. “You know what I believe in. You know that I am a man of my word and can be trusted to do what I say I will do. You know that I revere our Constitution and am committed to the rule of law. And you know that I believe in fairness, impartiality, and equal justice under [the] law.”
Several lines of questioning Tuesday resurrected charges of racial insensitivity from his failed 1986 Senate hearing for federal judge, and protesters during Tuesday’s hearing shouted out accusations of racism that liberal civil rights groups have pushed in the led-up to the Judiciary committee hearing.
“I did not harbor the kind of animosities and race-based discrimination I was accused of – I did not,” Sessions said.
Susan Crabtree contributed
