Political Quotes

“Madam President, 1 year ago today, I came to the Senate floor to oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions to lead the Department of Justice. The Justice Department is charged with defending our laws and standing up for all people regardless of color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or ability. That night, I described Jeff Sessions' appalling record on nearly every major national issue handled by the Justice Department, including civil rights, immigration, and criminal justice reform. That night, I also read a letter that Coretta Scott King sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986 that opposed Sessions' nomination to serve as a Federal judge. Mrs. King wrote a vivid account of how Jeff Sessions, as a U.S. attorney in the 1980s, had ``used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.'' That letter had been a part of the Senate Judiciary Committee's records for more than 30 years. It helped sink the nomination of Jeff Sessions for the Federal judgeship for which he had been nominated back in the 1980s. I had hoped that by reminding the Senate of its bipartisan rejection of Sessions in the 1980s, that the letter might help us to once again come together in a bipartisan way to say that this kind of bigotry shouldn't be allowed in our criminal justice system. That was my plan. Yet, for reading those words--the words of an icon of the civil rights movement--I was booted off of the Senate floor.…”