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Jeff Sessions Tag

Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference in Long Island, New Jersey in which he addressed gang violence.  He directly addressed the brutal and growing barbarism of the MS-13 gang, stating that in the Trump era the violent grip this gang has on Long Island, in particular, is unacceptable and will be stamped out. MS-13 is a Salvadoran gang that has established roots across America and is touted as "the gang that scares other gangs." Fox News reports:
They’re known as MS-13, MS, Mara or Mara Salvatrucha, but by any name, they’re trouble.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a stop in my hometown on Friday. During the visit, he urged cities and other government jurisdictions with sanctuary policies to reconsider and work with federal law enforcement to identify criminals who should be deported.

And the mainstream media wonders why Americans hate them so much. The media went into a tizzy over a speech Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave to border patrol agents on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal published an article with these two paragraphs:
In remarks Tuesday to Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico Border in Nogales, Ariz., Mr. Sessions spoke in stark terms about the threat he said illegal immigration posed. “We mean international criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones, that rape and kill innocent citizens,” Mr. Sessions said, according to the text of his prepared remarks. “It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.”
That's NOT what he said.

We spend a lot of our time correcting misreporting, slopping reporting, and reporting presented as objective when it clearly is not. Increasingly, it's apparent the attempt to oust newly-minted Attorney General Sessions was a good, old-fashioned media hit job. Who was behind it, we don't know. These things seldom happen on their own, especially in the age of a completely incurious press. The good folks over at the Media Research Center studied media coverage of the Sessions incident and compared it with the amount of coverage previous Attorney General Eric Holder received when he was in contempt of Congress. The results? Well, they're pretty much exactly what you'd expect them to be, sadly.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that then-Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) used campaign money to travel to the event where he mingled with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. There's a few problems with this assertion. Sessions used his campaign account to travel to the Republican National Convention...which is a campaign event for all of those politicians.

Joe Scarborough and John Heilemann were leading an overheated charge against Jeff Sessions on today's Morning Joe, when a surprising note of caution came from an unexpected source: Kasie Hunt. Hunt is an MSNBC correspondent, not a commentator, nor someone suspected of harboring hidden conservative leanings. Yet Hunt issued a blunt assessment on Dem dealings over Sessions. Observing that there's danger for Dems if they overplay their hand, Hunt said: "I think one of the lessons we learned in the 2016 election is Americans are sick of faux outrage."

In a post two weeks ago, I suggested that Trump was being put on trial in the media based on fact-less innuendo, The fact-free Intelligence Community-Media trial of Trump by innuendo:
I don’t know whether Donald Trump or his aides had any improper contacts with Russian Intelligence officers. Neither do you, or the media. The Intelligence Community might know, but they have provided zero facts either officially or through leaks to prove any improper, much less illegal, conduct took place.

The witch hunt against President Donald Trump and his administration continues in the mainstream media. Last night, The Washington Post reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to the Russian ambassador twice during the campaign, which he did not mention during his confirmation hearing. Thing is, the article disproves the newspaper's thesis. Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT) asked Sessions if he had been in contact with any Russian government officials about the 2016 election. Sessions said no.

I keep thinking one of these days, politicians will remember the internet exists, and along with it, evidence of almost about everything they've said or done while in office (and often outside of the office, too -- just ask David Wu). Alas... As the Trump cabinet targeting continues, Sen. Claire McCaskill stepped in a huge pile by claiming she never had a meeting or call with a Russian ambassador. Recently confirmed Attorney General and former Senator Jeff Sessions became the target of what appear to be trumped-up charges that he lied about his involvement with Russia during confirmation hearings. The political media set, along with federally elected Democrats are having a heyday, demanding Sessions resign.

Overnight a mass media hysteria developed over Jeff Session's answer to questions regarding contacts with Russians. As detailed in this NBC News report and elsewhere, Sessions was responding to questions regarding contacts in his role as a Trump surrogate:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied meeting with Russian officials during the course of the presidential election to discuss the Trump campaign, he told NBC News in exclusive remarks early Thursday. "I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign," he said, "and those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false. And I don't have anything else to say about that." ...

Former President Barack Obama made no effort to stop states that voted to legalize recreational marijuana, but never took to steps legalize the drug at the federal level. Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested he will undo everything Obama did:
“We have a responsibility to use our best judgment … and my view is we don’t need to be legalizing marijuana,” he said at the winter meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General. “I’m dubious about marijuana. I’m not sure we’re going to be a better, healthier nation if we have marijuana sold at every corner grocery store.”

On Wednesday evening, the Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as the next attorney general. Alabama GOP Governor Robert Bentley handed the seat to the state's Attorney General Luther Strange. Strange's swearing in will occur on Thursday.

While Sen. Warren is wearing out her victim card, Sen. Tim Scott used his time on the Senate floor to read hate mail he received since voicing his support for newly minted AG Sessions. “If you sign up to be a black conservative, the chances are very high you will be attacked,” said Sen. Scott. “It comes with the territory, and I’ve had it for 20 years, two decades, but my friends and my staff, they’re not used to the level of animus that comes in from the liberal left that suggests that I somehow am not helpful to the cause of liberal America and therefore, I am not helpful to black America.”

The Senate has confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as the next attorney general. The Democrats attempted to persuade their colleagues with a 24 hour debate, but they lost one of their own. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted yes for Sessions. Therefore, Sessions won with 52 yes votes and 47 no votes. Sessions voted as present. The Democrats have tried to cast Sessions as a racist and an enemy of the gay community. They also don't believe he would stand up to President Donald Trump. But the Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott (SC), have taken Sessions's side and rebuked all of those claims.

There was a fair bit of drama in the Senate last night. Senate Democrats are hosting yet another sleepover to protest the upcoming confirmation vote on Senator Sessions' appointment as Attorney General, knowing full well they don't have the votes to stop his confirmation. They pulled the same stunt prior to the confirmation vote for Betsy DeVos, the new Education Secretary. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) began reading a letter written by Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The letter was written in protest of Sen. Sessions nomination as a federal judge in 1986, and according to Senate Republicans, spoke ill of the soon-to-be AG.