Within hours of being arrested for protesting President-elect Trump’s choice of Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general, a top NAACP official signed fundraising email for MoveOn.org, raising charges that the event was a fundraising gimmick.
Here are the mugshots of the 6 @NAACP activists arrested today in Mobile after refusing to leave office of @SenatorSessions, AG nominee pic.twitter.com/RFhglmvKBh
— Lee Hedgepeth (@ALPolitics) January 4, 2017
In an email seeking $5 a month from MoveOn.org supporters, Benard Simelton, the Alabama State Conference president of the NAACP, described his protest at Sessions’ Mobile, Ala., office and arrest then asked for cash.
From the email:
“I’m Benard Simelton, the Alabama State Conference president of the NAACP.
“I was arrested last night while taking part in a nonviolent sit-in at Senator Jeff Sessions’ Mobile office in Alabama to oppose his nomination for attorney general. He is wholly unqualified to be the nation’s top law enforcement official, as demonstrated by his long and troubling record in opposition to civil and human rights.
“Will you click here to sign and share my petition asking Congress to reject Sessions’ nomination? It’s urgent: congressional hearings to approve his appointment start next week.”
Sessions, the long-serving Alabama senator and former prosecutor, is facing resistance from several liberal groups, but is expected to win confirmation to run the Justice Department.
Arrested @NAACP protesters being put in a paddywagon outside office of @SenatorSessions pic.twitter.com/KS8X6mq9hI
— Lee Hedgepeth (@ALPolitics) January 4, 2017
The swift move by Simelton to use his protest to raise money drew a sharp rebuke from a Sessions spokeswoman.
“What a sad statement on the left’s political reality that they would falsely smear a man’s character and reputation as a fundraising gimmick,” said Sarah Isgur Flores.
MoveOn is building a petition protests to Sessions which Simelton is promoting. He claims that Sessions is a racist, a charge rejected by black supporters of Sessions.
“It is unimaginable that he could be entrusted to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official,” Simelton wrote in his petition which can be viewed here.
In the protest, he was joined by NAACP national President Cornell William Brooks.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
