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One of the most high-profile hearings for incoming President Donald Trump’s Cabinet got underway Tuesday, with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions before he goes up for confirmation to become the nation’s next attorney general and head of the Justice Department. While many were watching the hearing, some of the most salient and tough observations about Sessions’ controversial past came from Black Lives Matter activists on Twitter.
Sessions was the first senator to endorse Donald Trump during the primary, coming out for the businessman and celebrity entrepreneur in February. After Trump won the election in November, Sessions was one of his first Cabinet appointments, despite the fact that Sessions had been rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986 for a federal bench appointment.
Among the skeletons in Sessions’ closet are controversial actions he took when he was the U.S. Attorney Alabama, which led to his failed nomination. These included a comment he reportedly made while investigating the 1983 lynching of a black teenager, saying that he “used to respect” the Ku Klux Klan, “but if they smoke pot, I sure can’t [respect them]”.
Here is just a sample of some of the reactions from Black Lives Matter activists on Twitter.