President-Elect Donald Trump’s recent nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General appeared to have triggered MSNBC host Al Sharpton Sunday, as he took to his show PoliticsNation to bloviate how the Senator is a racist and the GOP is too. “For Americans worried about how Donald Trump will govern, now we know the answer,” he began his show, “A pick that threatens all the work done by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.”
The MSNBC host brought on Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson to confirm his accusations about Sessions being a racist. Almost ironically, Johnson, who once feared the island of Guam would capsize because of too many US troops, compared Jewish settlers in Israel to termites over the summer. According to The Washington Free Beacon, Johnson’s comments came, “while speaking at an event sponsored by an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts of the Jewish state.”
“Well, he has a history of being opposed to the enforcement of the civil rights laws that protect vulnerable people from discrimination, from hate, from violence,” smeared Johnson, “And he's not a man of justice. He's a man of injustice…”
But in reality, Johnson’s claims against Sessions are unfounded when his record is examined, especially since the Senator supported Holder’s nomination by President Barack Obama.
According to The Weekly Standard, “As a U.S. Attorney [Sessions] filed several cases to desegregate schools in Alabama.” And as a prosecutor he feverishly pursued the death penalty for a member of the Ku Klux Klan who kidnapped and murdered an African-American teenager. “When he was later elected the state Attorney General, Sessions followed through and made sure [the Klansman] was executed,” The Weekly Standard noted.
In the late summer of 2001, Sessions affirmed that he believes that law enforcement did have a racial bias when it came making stops, according to an ABC News report. “I think it is likely that within every department there are some officers who subtly, if not otherwise, are biased in the way they go about enforcing the law. I think that is just life. We know that to be true,” ABC quoted Sessions as saying.
That is an issue near and dear to Sharpton’s own heart. ABC also reported that the Senator had shown support for honoring Rosa Parks and was concerned about housing discrimination against minorities.
But those facts didn’t stop Sharpton from using Klansman David Duke’s praise of Trump to smear Sessions and the GOP, by asking Johnson, “I mean, who are these picks that President-Elect Trump has announced, who is he appealing to here?”
“He's appealing to a dying breed in America, a racist element of our society that does not accept diversity, a bunch of old men, and, quite frankly, some misguided young people who believe that this country should not be the melting pot that it has always been,” Johnson responded, attempting to link the two. The truth of the matter is, if Trump really was energizing a racist base, then why did David Duke get utterly destroyed in his Senate campaign in Louisiana?
Transcript below:
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MSNBC
PoliticsNation
November 20, 2016
8:01:11 AM EasternAL SHARPTON: For Americans worried about how Donald Trump will govern, now we know the answer. Despite outreach to establishment Republicans like Mitt Romney, Trump has shown his core values, especially with his pick for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions. Let's review his team. Trump's top strategist will be Steve Bannon, former head of Breitbart. It is a site that has been called, quote, “a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill.” His national security adviser will be General Michael Flynn, a man who says Islam is a cancer.
…
SHARPTON: And Sessions as attorney general. A pick that threatens all the work done by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Sessions is against softening mandatory sentences, he backed Trump's Muslim ban. In the '80s, he was accused of calling the NAACP, quote, “un-American and communist inspired.” Referring to an African-American federal prosecutor as “boy.” And saying the KKK was fine, quote, “until I found out they smoked pot.” All of that came up during Senate hearings in 1986 when Sessions was up for federal judgeship. Sessions has denied making racially prejudiced statements. Here's what he said back then about his alleged NAACP comments.
JEFF SESSIONS: These comments that you could say about commie organization or something, I may have something like that in a general way and it was probably wrong.
SHARPTON: The Senate panel rejected Sessions’ nomination, maybe in part because of a story that came up during the hearings.
…
8:04:11 AM Eastern
SHARPTON: A Trump spokesman said Sessions is well respected and was a well-respected Senator whose 1986 rejection was a mistake. Joining me now is Congressman Hank Johnson, Democrat from Georgia, a member of the Judiciary Committee. Thank you for being here.
HANK JOHNSON: Thank you for having me, Reverend Al.
SHARPTON: Congressman, in light of all of this, what are your concerns about senator sessions as attorney general?
JOHNSON: Well, he has a history of being opposed to the enforcement of the civil rights laws that protect vulnerable people from discrimination, from hate, from violence. He will now be, if he's confirmed, the head of the Department of Justice. And he's not a man of justice. He's a man of injustice and it is quite, frankly, frightening to many of my constituents and I know people around the nation are just upset with this nomination. It’s consistent with the white nationalist bent of the Trump campaign, which appealed to those people in America who don't want to see black folks with the rights that we have, they don't want to see women, they don't want to see immigrants, they don't want to see Muslims with the same rights. They want America to be the way that it used to be back during times where the -- nobody had rights other than white males.
SHARPTON: How can Democrats, I mean, given these concerns that you raise, others have raised, I've raised some, how can Democrats do anything about this nomination? I mean, what can they do to pressure Trump and the Republicans in regard to Senator Sessions' nomination?
JOHNSON: Well, I think the people have been out in the streets throughout the United States of America, letting it be known that Trump won this race without a majority of the votes, he does not have a mandate, he should not be given a green light to put anyone who he pleases into these offices without them being subjected to rigorous scrutiny. And when it comes to Senate confirmation, we expect our Senators to hold this man's feet to the fire.
…
8:07:33 AM Eastern
SHARPTON: Because, let me show you something, congressman. One man who hailed Trump's nomination of picking Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, and Jeff sessions is former KKK leader David Duke.
…
[Quoting from audio of Duke] “We're confident, we're on our way to taking America back.” I mean, who are these picks that President-Elect Trump has announced, who is he appealing to here?
JOHNSON: He's appealing to a dying breed in America, a racist element of our society that does not accept diversity, a bunch of old men, and, quite frankly, some misguided young people who believe that this country should not be the melting pot that it has always been. But only now all people within that melting pot have the rights to live freely and prosper and have equality in all matters of life here in America. And these folks want to try to take that away and put it back to a situation of white supremacy. That's bottom line, Reverend Al.
SHARPTON: Let me quickly, I have to let you go, but let me show you something that really caught my eye. This is a selfie photo taken of Vice President-Elect Pence, when he visited the house this week, of he and the GOP members of the House, House Republicans. Not a lot of diversity in that picture. I mean, they really don't represent what America looks like right now, do they, congressman?
JOHNSON: No, they sure don't and they don't want it to ever look other than the way that they pose it to be, and this group of white males with a few women in the background, and everybody else is in their place. And we're just not going to have it, Reverend Al. Can't go back.
