MSNBC Panel: Senate Dems Need More Time to Grill ‘Bigot’ Jeff Sessions

Nicholas Fondacaro | January 6, 2017
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MSNBC’s ever pleasant Joy Reid set her sights on Republican Senator Jeff Sessions on All In Thursday, with the usual accusation if racism. Reid and her panel of leftists were up in arms that congressional Republicans would only allow two days and four Democratic witnesses for Sessions’ attorney general confirmation hearing. “They have asked for more time because Jeff Sessions hasn't completed his judiciary questionnaire. It’s woefully incomplete. And there’s a lot to get through,” bemoaned Joan Walsh of The Nation.

The man had three days of hearings when he was rejected for a federal judgeship,” she continued to whine, “Only four witnesses and it will be only two days and there will be no delay despite the woefully inadequate disclosures that he's made.” Walsh seemed to suggest that her claim of Sessions’ application being “woefully incomplete” was sourced by Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, not the most non-partisan place to get facts.

Reid found it “shocking” that Republicans would conduct a hearing in such a way. She turned panelist Jason Johnson from The Root for answers, “Does that sound like it's feasible to get through all of the past that -- baggage Jeff Sessions is dragging with him to Washington?

It takes a long time to lay out how much of a bigot he is,” Johnson smeared, as he let loss on the Senator and warned:

Given the fact that, again, this guy was rejected you know 30 years ago, he has statements today and I think one of the things any witness would want to do is say, “Look, not just that he may be a bigot but there are consequences to that attitude being in this position.” And that requires time, that requires witnesses, that's clearly not something the Republican congress wants to do and there will be bad consequences for rushing this through when he actually has to adjudicate on behalf of this nation.

All three of them conveniently forgot Sessions’ work as a prosecutor in Alabama where he fought hard for the death penalty for a member of the Ku Klux Klan who kidnapped and murdered an African-American teenager. Sessions also shared their belief that there is racial bias in policing. Such factual discrepancies are to be expected with Johnson because he has a history of making factually inaccurate and discredited claims.

But there was more to worry about according to Reid, who fretted for those who opposed Sessions’ nomination, “Because you have criminal justice reform issues with him, obviously you have direct race issues, but you also have voting rights.” She again failed to mention a key part of his history in the Senate, notably his vote to renew the Voting Rights Act.

The panel’s willfulness to completely omit any positive aspect of Sessions’ record, in terms of race, demonstrates how they don’t care about the facts.

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