Dear Mr. Trump,

You are appointing leaders of the United States of America–not picking dramatic players for a reality television series. Your pre-election promise of “draining the swamp” is as empty and hollow as the rest of the campaign promises you’ve since backed down from. “Repealing and replacing Obamacare,” for instance? How about appointing a special prosecutor to investigate–and convict–Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server? I, for one, am thrilled that you’re not a man of your word. They were fear-based threats and held no merit in reality.

However, your actions speak louder than any of the idle threats you made during your campaign. Choosing Senator Jeff Sessions as your U.S. attorney general is asinine and disgusting.

Let’s talk about our future U.S. attorney general.

Jeff Sessions has:

• fiercely opposed immigration reform
• a long history of opposition to civil rights—dating back to his days as a US attorney in Alabama
• opposed the Voting Rights Act
• called the NAACP and ACLU “communist-inspired” and “un-American”

used the “n-word” and joked about the Ku Klux Klan, saying he thought they were “okay, until he learned they smoked marijuana”

• spoken openly about climate change being a hoax

Sen. Sessions is a proven racist, bigot, and dangerous man with dangerous ideologies. Racial tension in our country is at a level similar to the 1968 Watts riots. In that light, this pick is not only ignorant, it is objectively bad. It sends the signal to minorities who have been harassed and murdered by police that in fact, your federal government does not care. With this decision, you are lighting a match and tossing it towards a four-month-old Christmas tree. Don’t be surprised to see our country burn to the ground, Mr. President-elect of the United States of America.

 

Incensed,

Brittany Ankrom McLaney