During the first Senate confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet Tuesday, protesters dressed up as members of the Ku Klux Klan greeted Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican nominated for attorney general.
The two white-robed men yelled sarcastic support at Sessions as he entered the Senate hearing, The Huffington Post reported, signaling the next two weeks of confirmation hearings could be contentious.
"What is this craziness? I’m a white man! You cannot take me out of here! I own this country! White people own this government!" one of the protesters said as an officer escorted him out, according to The Huffington Post.
Sessions' civil rights history is one thing opponents are bringing up in light of his cabinet nomination. In the '80s, Sessions joked his only complaint about the KKK was that they smoked pot. The joke backfired when it helped prevent Sessions from becoming a federal judge in 1986.
Also at the time, Sessions reportedly called civil rights groups "un-American" and said they were attempting to "force civil rights down the throats of people who were trying to put problems behind them."
Despite his past remarks, Sessions defended his civil rights record during the Senate confirmations Tuesday and said he would fight against discrimination if confirmed as the next U.S. attorney general under the president-elect’s administration.
“I deeply understand the history of civil rights and the horrendous impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters,” Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee in his opening statement.
“I have witnessed it,” Sessions added. “I understand the demands for justice and fairness made by the LGBT community.”
Sessions' hearing was just the start for Trump's selected cabinet. Rex Tillerson, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, is scheduled to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.
On Monday night, the Senate postponed the confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for secretary of education, because she hadn’t yet signed a certified ethics agreement.
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