The senate hearings for Donald Trump’s terrible cabinet picks start today with wannabe Attorney General Jeff Sessions. #ResistTrump today by calling your Senators and urging them not to vote for Sessions.
I’ve got more info on Sessions below, but let’s start with the practical issues involved in making a call.
Get phone numbers and other contact info for your senators here.
Sessions will be making his case today to the Senate Judiciary Committee; check here to see if either of your senators is on the committee.
Tell the staffer who takes your call who you are, and note that you are one of the senator’s constituents — i.e., someone who will actually be voting for or against them in future elections.
Express your concerns about Sessions. You can be blunt, saying that you feel he is unfit for the job because he is racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic.
Or you can be more subtle, saying that Sessions’ record suggests to you that he’s not interested in fighting for the rights of all Americans. (See more details on these points and more below.)
Ask if the senator plans to vote against Sessions, or if they have spoken out against him; offer support if they say yes, tell them that you are disappointed if they say no.
If they are on the Judiciary Committee, ask if they intend to give Sessions the “extreme vetting” he deserves, or something along these lines.
If you can add a personal story to your comments, by all means do — especially if you’ve been harassed or discriminated against on the basis or race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, etc.
If you didn’t call yesterday to register your outrage over the GOP’s attempts to ram all of Trump’s nominees through the confirmation process without adequate time to properly vet them, feel free to comment on this as well. See my post here for advice and info.
If you can’t call, writing a personalized email is also effective. See my posts here and here for more advice on how to call/write your reps.
And here’s some advice on calling politicians if you have social anxiety.
See my post here for a schedule of all the cabinet confirmation hearings this week.
If you want to know more about Sessions before you call, read on:
Sessions has a long and less-than stellar record when it comes to race and civil rights. As the ACLU notes, Sessions
Defended President-Elect Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the United States. …
Referred to the Voting Rights Act, a law that simply demands that every American’s right to vote is protected, as a piece of “intrusive legislation.” …
Once prosecuted civil rights activists for registering black voters. …
Allegedly labeled the ACLU and NAACP “un-American” groups who “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” …
Argued that stop-and-frisk programs are Constitutional, saying that “it’s all about how that is done.”
As a Senator he’s been an enthusiastic supporter of the right’s “war on women.” The ACLU points out that he
Supports a national 20-week abortion ban … and has a 100% voting record from the National Right to Life Committee. …
Voted to defund Planned Parenthood … and called for the Justice Department (which he is being nominated to lead) to investigate PPFA …
Voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
As the ACLU also documents, Sessions has retrograde views on torture and supported the Patriot Act. (See their fact sheet on Sessions for more, as well as for documentation of all this.)
As Alabama’s attorney general, he sought to uphold so many dubious death penalty verdicts that some have labeled him “the Grim Reaper of Alabama.” As several of his critics point out in a recent New York Times op-ed, Sessions
worked to execute insane, mentally ill and intellectually disabled people, among others, who were convicted in trials riddled with instances of prosecutorial misconduct, racial discrimination and grossly inadequate defense lawyering. Mr. Sessions’ eager participation in an unjust Alabama capital system makes him a frightening prospective civil rights enforcer for the nation.
What else is wrong with him? He doesn’t think that gay-bashing counts as a hate crime, and has such a poor record on LGBT rights generally that The Human Rights Campaign rates him a “zero.”
As newly elected Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth notes, Sessions “has a record of not supporting basic access for people with disabilities whether they’re adults or children.”
Right Wing Watch enumerates more of his less-endearing qualities here.
See more Resist Trump Today posts here.
@Pagan
I just did, and I’m East Coast. Depending on your time zones, you could have plenty of time. Regardless, it’s never too late to leave a voicemail. Go for it!
I emailed both of my state’s senators. Neither of them are on the comittee, but hopefully they can still do something.
Edit: I recieved an auto-response from one Senator saying that he recieved my emails (all three of them, lol) and will read and reply to them shortly.
@Axe, I’m on the East Coast too.
Congrats on calling! You’re way braver than I am.
@Pagan
You did your civic duty. Nothing unbrave about it. Honestly, emails are more intimidating for me. So much time to think. To overthink. I tried to email yesterday, couldn’t bring myself to do it, called instead 🙂
My senators have a few of my voicemails now. It would be nice to reach an actual human on the other end of the line, but I suppose calling at 6:30 pm is not conducive to that.
Chuck Schumer endeared himself to me by sending back that McConnell letter on nominee vetting with the names changed.