Political Quotes

“Mr. President, there has been a lot of discussion about Senator Sessions' nomination on this floor in the last 24 hours. Before we vote, I want to offer a couple of observations about the unfairness in some of the statements. First, I was hoping to limit my remarks to all of the reasons why I believe Senator Sessions will make an outstanding Attorney General, but instead I feel very compelled to say a few words about some of the attacks that have been leveled against Senator Sessions here on the floor, where he has served the people of Alabama faithfully for 20 years. A number of Senators have come to the floor to talk about Senator Sessions' hearing in 1986 when he was nominated to be a Federal judge. Now, it happens that I was in the Senate in 1986, at that time by 6 years. I was on the Judiciary Committee in 1986, by that time for 6 years, and I want you to know I saw what happened. I don't have time to go into all the details here, but I will tell you this: Jeff Sessions' hearing in 1986 was an absolute ambush. In fact, it was a planned ambush. He was unfairly attacked then and he is being unfairly attacked now. I will give just two examples. First, in the last 24 hours, we have heard Senator Sessions attacked for a voting rights case that he pursued as U.S. attorney in Alabama. We have heard a lot about that case.…”