Former U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, spoke to an online meeting of the Fayette County Republican Party on Tuesday evening.
“It is my wife’s birthday,” Sessions said. We have been married for 51 years.”
Sessions claimed that he was better prepared to represent the people of Alabama in the Senate than his Republican Party primary runoff opponent, former Auburn football Coach Tommy Tuberville.
“I said to the people of Alabama many many times that I understand the seriousness of the office,” Sessions said.
Sessions said that he has worked for Republican values since he was a teenager, worked in elections when the GOP did not win anything all the way to the point today where, “Now Doug Jones is the only statewide elected Democrat in Alabama and he needs to go.” Sessions said that Tuberville in his entire adult life had not endorsed a candidate or given one political speech.
Sessions called incumbent Doug Jones, “A minion of Chuck Schumer. It was a bad thing when he managed to slip in there.”
“I know how to win that race,” Sessions said. Doug Jones if re-elected, “Will vote for Chuck Schumer to be leader of the Senate and he will vote against every Republican Senate Chairman, including Senator Shelby who is supporting me and I am grateful for that support.”
“There were 30 in my senior class in Camden, Alabama,” Sessions said. “Judy Bonner was in my graduating class and she went on to head the University of Alabama System. Kay Ivey was two years ahead of me.”
Sessions said that he grew up in the country outside of Camden in a one thousand square foot house that is still standing. A CBS correspondent met with him there recently, “I think she was shocked that I did not live in an antebellum mansion or some such.”
“I went to Huntingdon College and law school at the University of Alabama,” Sessions added. “Every one of my grandfathers was born in Alabama and every one of my great grandfathers was here by 1850.”
“I know what I believe,” Sessions said. Someone who is not so experienced, “I don’t know that we want to launch them into that zoo. They will start drifting because the pressure is so great on the other side.”
Sessions was critical of China’s Communist Party leaderships. “Communists lie. We need to take the rose colored glass off. They have not gotten softer they have gotten tougher.”
“Xi Jinping is more dictatorial than the last four leaders they have had,” Sessions said. “He is more hostile to religion.”
Sessions said that he has the endorsement of the Alabama Forestry Association. “The National Rifle Association gave me an A+ rating for my whole career.” The ICE officers they say I am the number one member of Congress out of the whole 535. I also was endorsed by Eunie Smith with Eagle Forum, Tony Perkins, and the Family Research Council.
“I stopped the bogus amnesty bill,” Sessions said.
Sessions touted his role as a member of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016. “We worked tirelessly to rally conservatives. I endorsed Donald Trump. I was the first one in Congress to do so.”
“I thought he would deliver for us,” Sessions said. “I thought he could get elected. Some of the others could not.”
“I know how to fight for police officers,” Sessions added. “I never imagined they would be so under attack.”
“I have earned to be more careful about committing our troops to battle,” Sessions said. “They will win the battle. but we have got to be sure about what comes after.”
“I recommended that (James) Comey be terminated,” as head of the FBI at the beginning of the Trump Administration Sessions said. “That was not done. I thought we needed a fresh start. I didn’t have confidence in him.”
Numerous participants submitted questions asking Sessions about why as Attorney General he recused himself from the Russia collusion investigation.
“After I was confirmed I was being investigated,” Sessions explained.
“There is a Department of Justice rule that if you have a role in the campaign you can not investigate the campaign,” Sessions said. “That rule came in after Watergate. Every U.S. attorney knows that you can not investigate a campaign that you were a part of and I had a role and a title with the Trump campaign. You might be implicated yourself.”
“Doing the right thing, Tommy Tuberville, that is not weakness,” Sessions said.
Sessions said that he believed that the Department of Justice had gotten to be too partisan and we wanted to avoid that.
Sessions was asked why he appointed Rod Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General.
“I don’t believe in going back and second guessing everything. The President appointed Rod Rosenstein.” We both had been given information about Rosenstein. He had worked with Ken Starr on the Whitewater investigation. President Trump had appointed him as U.S. Attorney for the entire state of Maryland. “Pres. Bush had nominated him as a federal judge; but the Democrats blocked him because they said he was too conservative and a member of the Federalist Society. He was subject to the President’s removal at any time.”
“Trump’s judges are the best in my lifetime,” Sessions said.
Sessions was asked if the federal government could prosecute people for looting and burning our cities.
Sessions said that there is a statute we can look at for Antifa and some of these groups that organize riots across state lines; but as for looting, arson, etc. “That is outside of federal jurisdiction. We don’t want the federal government taking over all of that. The FBI has great skills; but we don’t want them” having authority over investigating all of that.
“Antifa started out with War on Wall Street,” Sessions said. “They are squarely coming out of the Marxist tradition. They are Marxists, anarchists, they are not good people.”
Sessions said that many people are marching so that things like what happened to George Floyd don’t happen again; but Antifa who is organized the riots and destruction “They hate the police. I am totally opposed to that. Antifa are not people of good faith. They often put up local young people to commit criminal acts while they lay in the back. I agree with Rudi Giuliani that you should prosecute the first rock thrown.”
“If I am in the Senate there will not be a stronger defender of law enforcement,” Sessions said. “When I became Attorney General, I met with our local police and our local sheriffs as well as federal officers. You protect the country and we want to help you. I told them we are going to be partners and we have your backs. We made sure whose side we were on. Everyday they are out there defending us.”
Sessions said that much of the violence and murders in Chicago trace back to an ACLU lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department. They entered into a consent decree with the ACLU. They agreed not to stop and ask people for their identification. They told them they made too many arrests and were locking up too many people. The first year after implementing those ACLU recommendations “Murders went from 450 to over 800. That was a direct result of not defunding but defanging the police. Most of those victims are minorities and poor people in poor communities.”
Sessions was asked about the University of Alabama removing Confederate plagues and other Confederate monuments being removed.
“History is what it is,” Sessions said. “My great grandfather left Alabama as a private. He was killed by a musket ball to the head at Antietam. We know the story of slavery and the Civil War and how that happened. We should discuss these things I don’t think we want to be erasing history.”
“I do think that the snowflakes today are projecting the things that they believe today on people who lives 100, 150, 200 years ago,” Sessions said. They have trashed the western tradition. I think it is dangerous to be persistent in seeking to erase everything.
The Republican Primary runoff is July 14.
