Sessions Laughs About Dismissing Hawaii’s Statehood: ‘Nobody Has a Sense of Humor Anymore’

“Why Not Just Call It The State of Hawaii?”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions joined George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss immigration this morning, and the conversation soon turned to his apparent dismissal of Hawaii’s statehood made earlier this week. 

“I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power,” Session said of the 50th state on Wednesday to a far right wing radio host.

The comment drew considerable outrage, with U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono calling Sessions’ stance “dog whistle politics” and U.S. Senator Brian Schatz pointing out that Sessions “voted for that judge [and] that island is called Oahu.”

“I think that was a perfectly correct statement,” Sessions defended his remarks on MSNBC Friday, and now, amidst laughter, he dismissed them entirely as “nobody has a sense of humor anymore.”

“Look, they filed the suit – the plaintiffs get to choose the venue,” Sessions said. “They filed the lawsuit in Hawaii… all I was saying was the president…”

“Why not just call it the state of Hawaii?” Stephanopoulos interrupted, prompting Sessions’ laughter.

“The president – nobody has a sense of humor anymore. Look, the president has to deal with the Department of Defense, the national intelligence agencies… he knows the threats to this country,” Sessions said. “We’re gonna defend that order all the way up.”

“You do have a situation in which one judge out of 700 in America has stopped this order,” further attempted to diminish the validity of 9th Circuit U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson’s decision. “I think it’s a mistake… I think we’ll eventually win.”

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