America’s New Chief Law Enforcement Officer is Anti-Civil Rights
Republicans have just voted to confirm Senator Jeff Sessions as the next U.S. Attorney General. The vote was 52-47, with one Senator voting “present.” Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the only Democrat to vote for Sen. Sessions.
The Senator from Alabama was the first in the upper chamber to endorse Donald Trump for President, and is believed to be among his closest policy advisors. Sessions suffers from a history of racially-charged remarks and as Alabama’s attorney general fought to prevent Blacks from voting.
Sessions is seen as being anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, anti-women, and anti-civil rights – but that’s not all.
“Accusations of racism have dogged Sessions’s career: Actually, they almost derailed it,” The Washington Post wrote when he was first nominated. And Vox called Sessions “a massive setback for civil rights.”
An op-ed in USA Today on Tuesday titled “I tried to help black people vote. Jeff Sessions tried to put me in jail,” makes the accusations even more concerning.
As the head of the Dept. of Justice, Sessions will be entrusted to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. It’s unclear how he will reconcile his personal beliefs, the policies and positions he has supported, with the American ideal of civil rights, one he has clearly fought against for decades.
UPDATE I: 7:30 PM EST –
“As Attorney General, Jeff Sessions is tasked with leading the Justice Department and advocating on behalf of all Americans, including LGBTQ people,” Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement. “If his discriminatory record is any indicator, workplace and hate crimes protections could be in danger – and that is a terrifying prospect for the future of equality and acceptance in America.â€
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