Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions’ appointment to Attorney General has been met with fierce opposition from critics who allege the senator made racist remarks decades ago.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft weighed in on the matter during an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Varney & Co.
“I think [the allegations] demonstrate the very severe poverty of the objection to Senator Sessions,” Ashcroft said. “They’re misleading, they’re false. It’s the equivalent of a political drive-by assassination.”
He added the comments against Sessions are demeaning to the body of government he serves, because his responsibility as Senator is to vet, advise and consent to nominations from the president.
Ashcroft also deemed the wrongful labeling of someone as a racist as “one of the most egregious assaults and most irresponsible assaults that could be possibly undertaken,” especially in regard to Sessions, whom he says he has known for decades and served alongside in the Senate.
“I observed his conduct as Attorney General of the State of Alabama. I know for 12 years prior to his attorney generalship in Alabama he was a Justice Department prosecutor, and he prosecuted based on his what I would call his DNA as a person who respects equity and fairness in the law. And he was aggressive in prosecuting those who abused the rights of others. So he stood up for African-American individuals,” Ashcroft said.
The former Attorney General added he doesn’t believe Sessions deserves the “character assassination” by those who don’t bring forward substantive objections to his appointment.
