Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General

[GMDino]

(11-20-2016, 07:20 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Jeff Sessions helped desegregate Alabama schools and successfully prosecuted white a triple-K murderer of a black child.  The murderer was successfully deep fried in Alabama's death house.  Don't ever pull the race card against Jeff Sessions.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090515133825/http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20090507_5499.php

Quote:Q: There were questions about your feelings about civil rights back in the '80s. Was that controversy overblown?

Sessions: Oh, I mean, I supported the [Justice Department's] Civil Rights Division on every case they brought in the Southern District of Alabama. They said I blocked one investigation, and then right before the hearing, they had to find out that my predecessor blocked some case or objected to some case -- which he probably had a right to object to -- but I never had. And it was that kind of thing.
We prosecuted a voting rights case that I believe was well-founded, which became a national issue. It was a case in which the defendants -- we had five African-Americans -- first, it was dealing with two African-American groups in a county that was majority African-American. And the evidence came out that, for example, one family of five sealed up their absentee ballots -- they had voted for their cousin -- but it wasn't the slate of the guy who picked up the ballots, and they said he changed, scratched out the name and put the X by the guy he wanted.

Q: You were 38 when you were nominated. You still remember that kind of detail?

Sessions: Well, I remember that case because I had to eat it. [chuckles]
Q: A lot of the controversy was around statements that you had made.
Sessions: I know. And who was present? There were two lawyers from the Civil Rights Division, and one of them was Barry Kowalski, who was the most prominent prosecutor of major civil rights cases in America -- maybe in the history of America -- and he testified at the [confirmation] hearing that it meant nothing and that I would be a good judge. But it didn't make much difference at the time. It didn't make any difference. They made up their mind.
Q: Can you characterize your position on civil rights?
Sessions: I am absolutely a firm supporter of equal rights for every American. I always have been and I always will be. That is a cornerstone of law. Nobody should be discriminated against. Now, we had discrimination in the South. There was no doubt about it. So that's what the civil rights movement was all about.

Now, when I was out there, I signed 10 pleadings attacking segregation or the remnants of segregation, where we as part of the Department of Justice, we sought desegregation remedies -- the takeover of school systems, redrawing lines -- all those things that I was allowed to participate in supporting.
So, I really -- it was not a pleasant experience. But one of the things that I learned from that was that a nominee can be unfairly abused. I mean, you're up there and they throw out somebody on the committee or otherwise make some charge and you don't have a very good opportunity to rebut it.

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/19/two-peas-in-a-racist-pod-jeff-sessions-alarming-history-of-opposing-civil-rights_partner/

Quote:Another damaging witness — a black former assistant U.S. Attorney in Alabama named Thomas Figures — testified that, during a 1981 murder investigation involving the Ku Klux Klan, Sessions was heard by several colleagues commenting that he “used to think they [the Klan] were OK” until he found out some of them were “pot smokers.” Sessions claimed the comment was clearly said in jest. Figures didn’t see it that way. Sessions, he said, had called him “boy” and, after overhearing him chastise a secretary, warned him to “be careful what you say to white folks.” Figures echoed Hebert’s claims, saying he too had heard Sessions call various civil rights organizations, including the National Council of Churches and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, “un-American.” Sessions denied the accusations but again admitted to frequently joking in an off-color sort of way. 

So he says he did he signed some pleadings about discrimination in the 80's?  That's not quite the same as "desegregating Alabama schools" And he was only joking about the KKK (during a murder case).  Clearly we can never question where he stand on race.