Former Alabama Senator, current Attorney General and cereal box icon who, after all these years, still thinks you’re after his Lucky Charms, Jeff Sessions, has been in the news quite a bit of late.
And as you’re probably aware, anytime you see “Jeff Sessions” trending you know, before you click, that either one of two things has happened: 1) Donald Trump has blamed him for the Mueller probe, or 2) he’s said something egregious.
Last week, in a tone deaf move outrageous enough that if Jeff had a PR firm, they most assuredly would have quit, Sessions cited a Bible verse to defend the practice of locking children in cages at border checks.
Again, that betrays a level of obliviousness with regard to optics and public opinion that is almost inconceivable to human beings, irrespective of partisan affiliation.
Well needless to say, the furor over the administration’s family separation policy has only grown since then and for reasons that remain a mystery considering the public outcry over the Bible comments, the administration decided it would be a good idea to let Sessions go on national television to talk about the “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
I guess what they were counting on was a sympathetic audience given that Sessions appeared on State TV (i.e., Fox News), but as it turns out, people who aren’t Trump supporters watch Fox just waiting on someone to say something outrageous (who knew, right?!).
In that regard, Sessions didn’t disappoint.
Here he is on “The Ingraham Angle”, explaining the Trump “angle” when it comes to comparisons between the administration and Nazi Germany:
Got that? Here it is again:
Well it’s a real exaggeration. Of course in Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country.
Frankly, I am not even sure how it’s possible to fuck that question up. In some respects, questions about comparisons to Nazi Germany are the toughest questions to field, but there’s a sense in which they are also softballs, which I’m sure is what Ingraham meant to toss.
Here Jeff, let me take a stab at answering that question for you:
I’m not even going to entertain comparisons to Nazi Germany other than to say that while it is extremely unfortunate that this administration’s zero tolerance policy is temporarily resulting in family separation at the border, and while we are just as upset as everyone else about what’s going on, comparing the plight of immigrants at the United States border to the plight of Jews in Hitler’s Germany is inappropriate and in my opinion serves to diminish the historical significance of one the most horrific mass genocides in the history of the world.
Period.
Is that my (i.e., Heisenberg’s) assessment? No. Or at least, not exactly.
Rather, the point there is simply to say that anyone with any semblance of wherewithal when it comes to thinking on their feet takes that softball from Ingraham and knocks it clean out of the fucking park.
But not Jeff Sessions. No, Jeff decided to go with “the difference is, they were keeping Jews from leaving.”
Nothing further.
I’m surprised Jeff Sessions needed that many words. Usually he just says: “whites only” and moves on. He’s still looking for the Bible quote to back that one up. This guy is in the wrong time and place, he’d have had a stellar career in the cabinet of Apartheid-era South Africa
Government quoting scripture to justify human rights violations? That sounds familiar; now where have we seen that before? Oh yes, in Iran, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and ISIS-controlled territory.
Don’t forget the American south. Sessions has done quite well for himself in AL.
Dan, please don’t label all the South like that — I am 100% opposite of that racist elf and I have always lived in the South. With each generation, things have changed for the better.
A good example is my grandchildren find it impossible to believe that ‘back in the day’ there were no black children in any of my schools! I have to also say they find it equally hard to believe that we also had no air conditioning in our schools! And they know that today, those same schools are all air conditioned and all races of kids are in their classes! Hallelujah! 🙂
I look for our younger generation to be more American than we are. We older one’s are doing the best that we can and yet we must do better. We can do more, by inculcating in the boys and girls of this country today some of the underlying fundamentals, the reasons that brought our immigrant ancestors to this country, the reasons that impelled our revolutionary ancestors to throw off a fascist authoritarian yoke, not unlike the same yoke under which we currently endure. Please, teach your children well.