Sessions interrupted

Protesters interrupt Sessions' speech on religious liberty

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interrupted on Monday by a handful of protesters at an event touting his Justice Department’s work on religious liberty, as he encouraged "respect for one another” but also referred to one of the protester's comments as “attacks.”

At the beginning of his remarks at the Federalist Society event in Boston, a man dressed as a member of the clergy and who identified himself as a United Methodist like Sessions, began riffing off a verse from the Bible that calls for taking in strangers and helping those in need. He also called on Sessions to “repent.”

As the protester was escorted out by police, Sessions said, “Thank you for your comments and your attacks.”

Shortly after, a second protester dressed as a minister began reading from a Bible. and was also escorted out of the room as he yelled that he was exercising his freedom of religion.

A third protester was removed after Sessions’ speech, holding a transgender pride flag and yelling, “We will not be erased,” an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s proposal to narrow the legal definition of gender in a way that could exclude transgender people from certain legal protections.

Sessions briefly mentioned this weekend’s shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in his remarks. The suspect in the shooting, which left 11 dead, said that he wanted to kill Jews, according to a federal affidavit. Federal prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty in the case, Sessions said.

“This was not just an attack on the Jewish faith. It was an attack on all people of faith. And it was an attack on America’s values of protecting those of faith. It cannot — it will not — be tolerated,” Sessions said.

He derided what he called a “total cultural war” on people of faith and lamented that “respect for religious liberty and for people of faith has eroded significantly in recent decades.”

“Maybe what we need is not more litigation but more tolerance, or simple patience, for others,” he said.