Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III failed at his confirmation hearing before the two days of testimony even began. Popular vote loser Donald Trump's pick to become attorney general of the United States failed to provide decades' worth of records previous to the hearing, leaving out "major details from his years as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, from 1981 to 1993; as attorney general of Alabama, from 1995 to 1997; and as a first-term U.S. senator, from 1997 to 2002."
Sessions' testimony on Tuesday was distinguished by his failure to prove to the Senate and the American people that he will serve the people and the law before serving the president who nominated him.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, for example, asked Sessions about the conflict presented by Trump’s multi-million dollar loan from Deutsche Bank, a bank that has been the subject of investigation by the current Justice Department for “creating and repackaging bad mortgage products.” As one news outlet has explained, the Justice Department has been trying to reach a settlement with Deutsche Bank, but if that settlement is not reached by January 20, “a federal government run by Trump will have to decide how hard to push the bank that Trump owes so much to and that has been critical to Trump’s fortunes.” Somewhat inexplicably, given the many, many stories about this issue, Sessions told Blumenthal that he wasn’t “aware of that case” and was “totally uninformed” about its merits.
Sessions also plead ignorance when Senator Blumenthal asked him about the Emoluments Clauses, key anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution designed to ensure that the nation’s leaders serve the people’s interests, and not their own. The Foreign Emoluments Clause prohibits the President, absent congressional consent, from receiving emoluments—compensation, gifts, or other forms of profit or gain—from foreign governments, while the Domestic Emoluments Clause prohibits the President from receiving them from state governments and their instrumentalities.
Email your senators urging them to keep Jeff Sessions from becoming attorney general. Let them know in your own words why he'd be such a disaster.
Equally as troubling were assurances from Sessions and from those he chose to represent him as character witnesses that he will uphold the law for everyone—for women, for people of color, for the LGBT community. The assurances Sessions gave couldn't erase the decades of his actions, couldn't show that the man who was too racist to be confirmed for a federal judgeship three decades ago has changed his stripes. Notably, the one woman and the people of color who testified in his support spoke of their personal relationships with Sessions, and did nothing to rebut his actions beyond saying that he never acted like a racist toward them personally.
So the testimony to heed has to come from those members of the Congressional Black Caucus who broke with Senate tradition, broke with norms, and spoke from their hearts to oppose his confirmation. Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) voiced it loud and clear: "Those who are committed to equal justice in our society wonder whether Sen. Sessions' call for ‘law and order’ will mean today what it meant in Alabama, when I was coming up back then. […] It doesn't matter whether Sen. Sessions may smile or how friendly he may be, whether he may speak to you. We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against."
I was born in rural Alabama -- not very far from where Senator Sessions was raised. There was no way to escape or deny the choke hold of discrimination and racial hate that surrounded us. I saw the sings that said White Waiting, Colored Waiting. I saw the signs that said White Men, Colored Men, White Women, Colored Women. I tasted the bitter fruits of segregation and racial discrimination.
Segregation was the law of the land that ordered our society in the Deep South. Any black person who did not cross the street when a white person walked down the same sidewalk, who did not move to the back of the bus, who drank from a white water fountain, who looked a white person directly in their eyes could be arrested and taken to jail.
The forces of law and order in Alabama were so strong that to take a stand against this injustice, we had to be willing to sacrifice our lives for our cause. Often, the only way we could demonstrate that a law on the books violated a higher law, was by challenging that law, by putting our bodies on the line, and showing the world the unholy price we had to pay for dignity and respect. […]
It doesn't matter whether Sen. Sessions may smile or how friendly he may be, whether he may speak to you. We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn't matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian or Jews. We all live in the same house, the American house. We need someone as attorney general who is going to look for all of us, not just some of us.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) reiterated that:
Senator Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requirement of the job -- to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights, and justice for all. In fact, at numerous times in his career, he has demonstrated a hostility toward these convictions, and has worked to frustrate attempts to advance these ideals.
If confirmed, Senator Sessions will be required to pursue justice for women, but his record indicates that he won't.
He will be expected to defend the equal rights of gay and lesbian Americans, but his record indicates that he won't.
He will be expected to defend voting rights, but his record indicates that he won't.
He will be expected to defend the rights of immigrants and affirm their human dignity, but his record indicates he won't.
His record indicates that as Attorney General he would obstruct the growing national bipartisan movement toward criminal justice reform.
His record indicates that we cannot count on him to support state and national efforts toward bringing justice to a justice system that people on both sides of the aisle readily admit is biased against the poor, drug addicted, mentally ill, and people of color.
His record indicates that at a time when even the FBI director is speaking out about implicit racial bias in policing and the need to address it; at a time when the last two Attorneys General have taken steps to fix our broken criminal justice system; and at a time when the Justice Department he would lead has uncovered systemic abuses in police departments all over the United States including Ferguson, including Newark; Senator Sessions would not continue to lead urgently needed change.
These men would not have taken the dramatic step of testifying against their congressional colleague unless they meant it, unless it was something as critical to the nation as keeping this man out of this extremely powerful position.