The Senate confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Senator Jeff Sessions were hijacked by three racists yesterday. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative John Lewis (D-GA5) and Representative Cedric Richmond (D-LA2) spoke at the hearings yesterday in opposition to Senator Sessions (R-AL) with no real accusations only their own racist fantasies.

These men elected in their states to represent their constituencies. These men who are supposed to represent the best in all of us. These men who are in the top 1% of our nation’s population by just about any possible measure took this time to smear a fellow elected official. They had no specific charges against Senator Sessions. They broke no new ground. They only proved their own racism and let themselves and those they represent down.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a portion of Representative Lewis’ testimony:

“It doesn’t matter whether Sen. Sessions may smile or how friendly he may be, whether he may speak to you. We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian or Jews We all live in the same house, the American house. We need someone as attorney general who is going to look for all of us, not just some of us. I ran out of time. Thank for giving me a chance to testify.”

We know that Rep. Lewis was born into segregation and that life was unlivable. But, that is no allegation against Senator Sessions, who helped prosecute a KKK member.

Representative Richmond’s testimony clip from The Advocate:

“To have a senator, a House member and a living civil rights legend testify at the end of all of this is the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. It’s a petty strategy,” Richmond told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I don’t mind being last, but to have a living legend like John Lewis treated like that is beyond the pale.”

Maybe Representative Richmond, if any of you had brought any evidence of anything other than your own racism, you would have gone earlier.