Rep. Gutierrez Rails Trump's Appointment Of Jeff Sessions To AG

By Stephen Gossett in News on Nov 18, 2016 9:49PM

Getty Images / Photo: John Moore

A pretty handy rule of thumb, we find, is if David Duke or Joe Walsh wholeheartedly applauds a particular social-political move, it’s probably bad news. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4th), of Chicago, would seem to agree, as he blasted the patently blast-worthy President- elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Jeff Session to Attorney General.

Gutierrez's righteously pissed statement is worth quoting in full:

"If you have nostalgia for the days when blacks kept quiet, gays were in the closet, immigrants were invisible and women stayed in the kitchen, Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is your man. No Senator has fought harder against the hopes and aspirations of Latinos, immigrants, and people of color than Sen. Sessions. He is a staunch opponent of legal immigration and someone who has blocked every effort to improve, modernize, and humanize our immigration system, which is two or three decades out-of-date. He ran for the Senate because he was deemed by the Senate Judiciary Committee as too racist to serve as a federal judge. He is the kind of person who will set back law enforcement, civil rights, the courts, and increase America’s mass incarceration industry and erase 50 years of progress."

Mic drop.

Gutierrez has been decidedly full-throated in his condemnation of Trump and his recent moves. Gutierrez appeared on Monday at a press conference with Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago in which the mayor reaffirmed Chicago’s sanctuary-city status—a presser at which the president of Lurie Children’s Hospital said Trump’s election has ignited a “public health crisis—and on Thursday he joined colleagues in calling on President Barack Obama to pardon DREAMers, both “retroactively and prospectively.”

Of course in politics, there can be a thin line between ethical indignation and grandstanding. But this kind of continued normalization of racist, xenophobic and sexist leanings needs "bullshit" called on it—and we're glad to see one of our own help lead the charge.

Several Illinois lawmakers were quick to chastise Donald Trump for his pick of Steve Bannon as chief strategist.

Senator-elect Tammy Duckworth has not yet made a public comment about Sessions; Sen. Dick Durbin didn't respond to the news directly, but released a statement in which he disavowed the proposed Muslim immigration ban:

"Reinstating failed programs that target Arabs and Muslims in our country is exactly what ISIS was cheering on election night—when America, a beacon of freedom in the world, gives in to fear and begins chipping away at civil rights, our enemies are emboldened and their ranks swell with new recruits. Back in 2002, I called for this program to be terminated because there were serious doubts it would help combat terrorism. Terrorism experts have since concluded that this program wasted precious homeland security funds and alienated Arab- and Muslim Americans. How many terrorists did it identify? Zero. Failed programs like this are the exact wrong approach to combating terrorism, and I'll fight to ensure it never returns."

[H/T Crain's]