Racist Sessions...

Conway defends AG pick Sessions against accusations of racism

By Louis Nelson

If Democrats find Jeff Sessions so objectionable as a pick to be the nation’s next attorney general, then why did the Alabama senator run unopposed when he last won office in 2014, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Drumpf wondered aloud Monday morning.

Kellyanne Conway, who managed Drumpf’s presidential campaign to a shocking win earlier this month, defended the Manhattan billionaire’s pick to lead the Justice Department against allegations of racism dredged up from his past during an interview on CNN’s “New Day.” Sessions was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 in part because of comments he was accused of making, including calling the NAACP “un-American” and referring to an African-American attorney as “boy.”

Sessions denied those allegations, but his history of opposing the voting rights act has raised concerns among some on the political left about what his stewardship of the Department of Justice might look like. Some of his fellow senators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the incoming ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have signaled that Sessions’ confirmation process will not be a cakewalk.

“Why didn't Democrats put anybody up against him last time he ran, in 2014?” Conway asked CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

“In Alabama?” Cuomo replied.

“Sure,” Conway said. “If you’re against him, be the sacrificial lamb. Say, ‘I’m going to stop this guy because of who he is.’ They couldn’t do it, because they know who he is.”

Sessions won reelection in 2014 with just over 97 percent of the vote. His was the only name on the ballot for the seat, the first time in Alabama history that a Democrat did not run in a Senate race.

Conway said those objecting to Sessions were “still in campaign mode,” accusing them of not accepting the election’s results. She said a full examination of the Alabama senator’s record would show that he voted to confirm former Attorney General Eric Holder and, as a U.S. attorney in the 1980s, secured the death penalty for the son of a KKK member who killed a black man.

“He's been a United States senator for 20 years. He was a law enforcement officer before that. He is incredibly qualified. Look, the criteria for any of these posts, Chris, is number one, are you qualified and capable of doing the job on day one?” Conway said. “Secondly, it’s are you loyal to the agenda that the president-elect has put forward as his vision? And he has a right to go ahead and implement that with the advisers that he surrounds himself with.”