On her 12 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show on Friday, anchor Andrea Mitchell fretted over Donald Trump nominating Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general: “...this is a difficult time with the civil rights issues front and center at the Justice Department after Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, the Voting Rights Act being somewhat gutted by the Supreme Court, and all of those issues that have been raised.”
Correspondent Peter Alexander sounded the alarm: “I think what’s sort of striking and what Americans need to consider is just what a sweeping change this will be from what the attorney general's office looks like right now. Consider the fact that you had Eric Holder, the first African-American attorney general...making civil rights a priority, tried to rebuild the civil rights division there. Now you’ll have Jeff Sessions...”
He touted accusations that were hurled at Sessions during a confirmation battle in the 1980s, when President Reagan tried to appoint him as a federal judge: “...some of the past comments, the testimony back in 1986, where there was testimony from former colleagues that he referred to organizations like the NAACP and some other civil rights groups as being, quote, ‘un-American and Communist-inspired.’ Back then, an individual said that he said that the KKK was fine until he learned that they smoked pot.”
Alexander wrung his hands: “He is going to be the man now who, in effect, will be in charge of sort of shaping civil rights policy, as far as it goes.” He further lamented: “So, Jeff Sessions, he’s gonna play a huge role on issues that a lot of Americans are focused on as we try to find a more inclusive society for so many.”
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Mitchell quickly added: “And Casa, an Hispanic American group, just put out a statement vociferously against because he’s going to be in charge of deciding what deportation levels. So it’s immigration, it’s deportation. The executive orders, we know, are gonna be cancelled, the Dreamers and all of that.”
In a later interview with Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, Mitchell pressed the Republican representative on Sessions: “We know he had a difficult time and did not get confirmed in 1986. What about those issues then?...Do you think that that will create problems for him if he does get confirmed to be attorney general at a time when we have had a lot of racial conflict in this country?”
At the end of show, Mitchell once again returned to the Sessions appointment and teed up justice correspondent Pete Williams to warn viewers about the Senator’s conservative stances: “He's controversial in some regard. Civil rights, his immigration policy.”
Williams explained:
He departs from the Obama administration in a number of ways. He voted for the confirmation of Eric Holder to be attorney general but against the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, the current attorney general, because he said she spoke in favor of the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration, which he has described as “lawless.” So he's one of the harshest critics of the President on immigration.
He voted against changing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy allowing gay people to serve in the military. He's been an opponent of another big project in the Obama Justice Department, what is called sentencing reform, trying to do away with mandatory minimums. Trying to keep low-level drug offenders from having to serve these long prison sentences that clog up the nation’s prisons. Many of his Republican colleagues have supported that, but he’s been one of the harshest critics of it. He said, “We should not be sending a message that we're going easy on sentencing just at the time of the crime rate going up.”
Here are excerpts from November 18 show:
12:04 PM ET
(...)
KATY TUR: And then there’s also Jeff Sessions for AG. He had a hard time, was not able to be confirmed back in the ''80s for a judgeship, but they believe that getting confirmed now will be a much easier scenario, especially since he's served in the Senate and the Republicans control the Senate.
ANDREA MITCHELL: And, Katy, Peter Alexander is here, deeper dive on Jeff Sessions and then I want to talk to you about and Mitt Romney.
PETER ALEXANDER: Yeah, sure.
MITCHELL: Jeff Sessions, yes, he had those difficulties when Reagan nominated him for a federal judgeship and this is a difficult time with the civil rights issues front and center at the Justice Department after Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, the Voting Rights Act being somewhat gutted by the Supreme Court, and all of those issues that have been raised. Yet, he is a popular senator, popular among his colleagues.
ALEXANDER: No, you make good points there, and I think what’s sort of striking and what Americans need to consider is just what a sweeping change this will be from what the attorney general's office looks like right now. Consider the fact that you had Eric Holder, the first African-American attorney general, then follow that up with Loretta Lynch. Eric Holder making civil rights a priority, tried to rebuild the civil rights division there.
Now you’ll have Jeff Sessions, Katy referred to some of the past comments, the testimony back in 1986, where there was testimony from former colleagues that he referred to organizations like the NAACP and some other civil rights groups as being, quote, “un-American and Communist-inspired.” Back then, an individual said that he said that the KKK was fine until he learned that they smoked pot.
He is going to be the man now who, in effect, will be in charge of sort of shaping civil rights policy, as far as it goes. And also defending the constitutionality of what, in effect, would be policies that could limit Muslim immigration in this country, which has been a primary issue for Donald Trump as well. So, Jeff Sessions, he’s gonna play a huge role on issues that a lot of Americans are focused on as we try to find a more inclusive society for so many.
MITCHELL: And Casa, an Hispanic American group, just put out a statement vociferously against because he’s going to be in charge of deciding what deportation levels. So it’s immigration, it’s deportation. The executive orders, we know, are gonna be cancelled, the Dreamers and all of that.
ALEXANDER: He can do that quickly. Executive orders you can overturn pretty quickly.
(...)
12:12 PM ET
MITCHELL: And I wanted to ask you about Senator Sessions background. We know he had a difficult time and did not get confirmed in 1986. What about those issues then? Do you think that – well, let me play a little bit of sound of what happened back then.
REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN: Sure.
JEFF SESSIONS [JUNE 5, 1986]: Issues that have been raised before the Judiciary Committee have been heard and argued and settled. That matter is over and I have no further comment about it.
MITCHELL: Do you think that that will create problems for him if he does get confirmed to be attorney general at a time when we have had a lot of racial conflict in this country?
(...)
12:54 PM ET
MITCHELL: Senator Jeff Sessions will have to appear before his own Judiciary Committee colleagues in confirmation hearings tomorrow to become attorney general. Joining me now is NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams, our expert on all things justice. He's controversial in some regard. Civil rights, his immigration policy. We've seen statements from Dianne Feinstein, Pat Leahy saying they disagree on substance, but he'll have a fair hearing. That said, he’s appearing before his own colleagues and they have the majority.
PETE WILLIAMS: That’s, I can’t – I'd be very surprised if he isn’t confirmed, but it will be, I’m sure, a spirited hearing. He departs from the Obama administration in a number of ways. He voted for the confirmation of Eric Holder to be attorney general but against the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, the current attorney general, because he said she spoke in favor of the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration, which he has described as “lawless.” So he's one of the harshest critics of the President on immigration.
He voted against changing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy allowing gay people to serve in the military. He's been an opponent of another big project in the Obama Justice Department, what is called sentencing reform, trying to do away with mandatory minimums. Trying to keep low-level drug offenders from having to serve these long prison sentences that clog up the nation’s prisons. Many of his Republican colleagues have supported that, but he’s been one of the harshest critics of it. He said, “We should not be sending a message that we're going easy on sentencing just at the time of the crime rate going up.”
He's 69 years old, in his fourth term in the Senate. But certainly one of the more conservative members of the Senate, which, of course is what I believe Donald Trump was looking for.
MITCHELL: Exactly. And when we talk about the fact that senators get confirmed, I do draw back on my own experience, yours as well, with John Tower, when he was nominated and went for defense secretary in 1989 by George Herbert Walker Bush and was rejected by the Armed Services Committee and that's how Dick Cheney went from the House to become the leader of the Pentagon.
WILLIAMS: I have some vague memory of that, Andrea.
MITCHELL: Yes, I know.
WILLIAMS: You know, I think frankly, John Tower was not well liked by his colleagues, and that didn't help him. You know, Jeff Sessions is not in that category. He’s – I think he's well liked, he's well regarded. He's a fierce combatant, very partisan. But you know, that's the way it goes up there.
MITCHELL: And the Republicans have the majority, so that is...
WILLIAMS: That's the key.
MITCHELL: ...the key. Pete Williams, thank you.
WILLIAMS: You bet.
MITCHELL: Thanks for being with us.
