The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People continued its fight against Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to be the next attorney general.
The civil rights group’s president, Cornell Brooks, took the witness stand against the Alabama Republican on Wednesday, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that he is “unfit” to serve.
Sessions’ record “reveals a consistent disregard of the civil rights of vulnerable populations,” Brooks said, including “African-Americans, Latinos, women, Muslims, immigrants, the disabled, the LGBT community and others.”
“[His] votes against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2009 and the Violence Against Women Act in 2012 and 2013 demonstrate a disturbing lack of concern regarding violent crimes, rape, assault, and murder committed against minorities,” Brooks added.
Brooks said the NAACP finds Sessions’ record on voting rights the “most troubling,” in addition how much he “stands in opposition to bipartisan efforts to end this era of mass incarceration.”
“We must face the reality that Sen. Sessions should not be our attorney general,” Brooks concluded.
“We must face the reality that Senator @jeffsessions should not be our Attorney General.” @CornellWBrooks
— NAACP (@NAACP) January 11, 2017
The NAACP has been staging protests against Sessions’ nomination in his home state of Alabama. A group of roughly 15 demonstrators were outside his Mobile office Monday in a last-ditch effort to stop his nomination.
Earlier this month, Brooks and five other NAACP members were arrested after holding a sit-in in Session’s Mobile office.
Despite the protests from these critics, Sessions is believed to have the votes in the Senate to be confirmed.
