Sen. Susan Collins’ recent endorsement of Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. attorney general is surprising and deeply disappointing.

Sen. Collins states she has known Sessions for about 20 years. Given that history, we would assume Sen. Collins is aware that:

• In 1986, the Senate rejected Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship because of racism he demonstrated as U.S. attorney in Alabama.

• Sessions told a white attorney he was a traitor to his race for representing black clients.

• Sessions called the American Civil Liberties Union and NAACP “un-American” for “trying to force civil rights down the throats of people.”

• Sessions stated, publicly, that the only problem with the Ku Klux Klan was that they smoked marijuana.

• Sessions voted against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” against the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and against renewing the Violence Against Women Act.

• Prominent white supremacists are calling Sessions’ nomination “great” and “like Christmas.”

Sen. Collins’ endorsement is fundamentally flawed.

It doesn’t address any of Jeff Sessions’ racist and extraordinarily anti-American statements and actions throughout his career. It doesn’t say anything about what Sessions has done that outweighs his anti-American stance on key issues. It offers nothing specific about why Sessions would make a good attorney general.

The message Sen. Collins’ endorsement sends to the people of Maine is: “I’m Susan Collins, and I think a person who boldly supports racists, extremists and domestic abusers should be allowed to uphold the laws of our land.”

We ask that Sen. Collins reject Jeff Sessions for attorney general immediately.

Mark Klimek

South Portland

Erica Burkhart

Portland

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