Gold Star father and Donald Trump critic Khizr Khan is voicing his opposition to the President-elect’s attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions.
“I urge you to think beyond partisan politics as you consider this nomination,” Khan said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee made public Monday. “Thirty years ago, a bipartisan group of senators rejected Mr. Sessions’ nomination to be a federal judge. His record since then does not give us any reason to believe that those senators were in error.”
Khan, who first spoke out against Trump at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, went on to claim that the Alabama senator does not have the best interests of all Americans at heart.
“The most minimal standard for leading the Department of Justice must be a demonstrated commitment to pursuing justice for all Americans. Mr. Sessions fails to meet that standard.”
Khan is not the first to speak out against Sessions. Judy Shepard — whose son Matthew was beaten and left to die in Wyoming in 1998 in a crime motivated by anti-gay sentiment — criticized the senator for opposing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009 in a report issued by the Humans Rights campaign.
Sessions is facing a contentious confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill this week. Senate Democrats have expressed skepticism and disapproval of Session’s conservative background and past.
Sessions’ hearing starts Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. ET.