#BREAKING 2 men wearing Klu Klux Klan costumes removed from confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general pic.twitter.com/9FAevqVmw6
— News This Second (@NewsThisSecond) January 10, 2017
This morning marks the beginning of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments, and we’re off to a roaring start with the attorney general hearing for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. Sessions has run into trouble with federal appointments in the past—in 1986, he failed to nab a federal judgeship under Reagan (before the very same committee!) when it came out in testimony that he had called a black assistant US attorney “boy” and joked about being cool with the Klan before he found out they smoked pot.
And today, protesters have no intention of letting that legacy slip. Before Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley could warn the assembled against speaking “out of turn,” two protesters dressed in white KKK garb leaped up with foam fingers that read “Go Jeffie Boy” and “KKK #1” and proceeded to say things like “protect the whites,” and “thank you so much for being here for the people.”
They sat with a group of protesters with Code Pink, a women-led social justice group.
As Sessions walked in… pic.twitter.com/4cmgzRL2q2
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) January 10, 2017
The fake klansmen were quickly escorted out, and the hearing is now underway.
Here’s the live stream:
Local cannabis advocacy group DCMJ is also sitting in on today’s hearing, wearing “Great Americans Smoke Sessions” t-shirts. They’ve orchestrated a whole slew of “smoke sessions” protests to highlight Sessions’s strong opposition to legalized marijuana. (“Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” Sessions said at an April hearing. “We need grown-ups in charge in Washington saying marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought to be minimized, that it is in fact a very real danger.”)
These guys say they got in line for the hearing at 4:20 this morning + dances to reggae to stay warm pic.twitter.com/MafC41lf7b
— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) January 10, 2017
More excitement is expected throughout the day and into tomorrow, when Democratic Senator Cory Booker will testify against Sessions—marking the first time a sitting senator will testify against a colleague for a cabinet position.
Booker prepared to make history in testimony against Sessions: First time ever a sitting senator will testify against another for Cabinet
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 10, 2017
“I do not take lightly the decision to testify against a Senate colleague,” Booker told CNN. “But the immense powers of the attorney general combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience.”
In addition to legal marijuana, Sessions has also challenged voting rights, hate crime protections, and legal immigration.
Another protester was removed for laughing when Sessions’ civil rights record came up.
Woman with @codepink removed after laughing out loud when one Senator praised Sessions civil rights record. pic.twitter.com/1h4XnMBU0B
— NAACP (@NAACP) January 10, 2017
Tomorrow, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Trump’s secretary of state pick, will face the confirmation committee, as well as CIA director pick Mike Pompeo, and transportation secretary pick Elaine Chao. James Mattis, picked for secretary of defense, is up Thursday. PBS has a breakdown of the schedule here.
Update: 11:00: Actor Arsenio Hall tweeted that his cousin was arrested at the hearing. “Got to bail him out,” he wrote.
My cousin got arrested at Session’s hearing! Cuz is a #nevertrumper, and he’s a #neverthesecondLionelonTheJeffersons / Got to bail him out. pic.twitter.com/hKmbnbG6NG
— Arsenio Hall (@ArsenioHall) January 10, 2017