Carper Announces Opposition to Jeff Sessions Nomination

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement about the nomination of Jeff Sessions to serve as Attorney General.

“Our nation’s top law enforcement official must defend the rights of all Americans, regardless of who they are, what they look like, or where they come from. Over the past several weeks, overwhelmingly, hundreds of Delawareans from Wilmington to Dover to Rehoboth Beach have told me that Senator Sessions has too divisive a track record to serve all Americans as our next Attorney General. Ultimately, I have come to agree with them.

“Jeff Sessions has been my colleague and friend for sixteen years. While we agree on some issues, in truth, our views on far too many important issues diverge, in some cases markedly. For example, Senator Sessions holds the same hardline views on immigration as President Trump, views that sow fear and division in our communities. He has a lifetime voting record that, on balance, is hostile to our country’s landmark clean water and clean air laws. He refuses to accept the science on climate change and has opposed efforts by the EPA to curb harmful carbon pollution from our nation’s power plants. 

“At times, he has demonstrated hostility to landmark civil rights laws too, such as the Voting Rights Act, and has opposed legal protections for LGBT Americans. He opposes the right of women to make their own health care decisions in many instances. I believe that too many of his views are just too extreme and too often inconsistent with the Golden Rule for him to lead the Department of Justice at this critical juncture. Thus, I cannot support Senator Sessions to be our next Attorney General.

“Reaching this decision does not bring me joy, but I was raised by my parents and in our church to pray for the wisdom to know what is the right thing to do. And that I have done when faced with this decision. Senator Sessions and I read the same Bible, and in the past have read it together from time to time. When we met in my office last week, we talked of how our faith guides us in our lives. I reminded him of how Matthew 25 tells us of our moral obligation ‘to the least of these’ in our society. Among other things it asks the question, ‘When I was a stranger in your land, did you take me in?’ Sadly, I have concluded that Senator Sessions does not fully share the commitment to that passage and to loving our neighbors as ourselves that I believe our nation’s Attorney General should hold, especially when it comes to providing advice and counsel to a President whose views are as extreme as many of those of Donald Trump.”

###

Print
Share
Like
Tweet