Senator Cory Booker breaks with Senate tradition to testify against Jeff Sessions as AG. And good for him in making the case that someone with no prior interest in civil rights or equal protection for all Americans isn’t going to start now. Bravo, Senator, this is sharply focused stuff and it is nice to have someone speak up for us here. You can see his testimony here:
Representative John Lewis also spoke against Senator Session’s nomination. He points out that we can’t afford to go back to where Sessions last knew anything about civil rights. (I also saw that Chris Coons joined this session just as Rep. Lewis started speaking, but was not there when Senator Booker was speaking.)
And yesterday, Coretta Scott King’s letter to the Judiciary Committee when they were considering Sessions for a Federal judgeship surfaced. Strom Thurmond never entered her letter to the official record.
“Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts,” King wrote in the cover page of her nine-page letter opposing Sessions’s nomination, which failed. “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.”
This is powerful stuff and while I think that Sessions will be confirmed, it is good to see that Democrats are not going to let Sessions his Jim Crow past.
Good for them!
Really encouraged by Booker, he ain’t takin’ it and is not afraid to speak. He, and those like him, are the future of the Dems. We need to recognize this and promote a new generation of Dems who reflect who we really are, and it’s not a bank CEO lunching with Tom Carper.
Cory Booker is amazing. He is our future.