Graham: Dem attacks calling Sessions racist are ‘complete garbage’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is defending his colleague, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), from Democratic accusations of racism.

“I’ve known Jeff for 20 years,” Graham said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday. “I think he’s a principled conservative.”

{mosads}“These attacks on his personal character about him being some kind of closet racist or what he may have said 30 or 40 years ago are complete garbage,” he continued.

“Jeff Sessions is one of the finest people I’ve ever known. I don’t think there’s a hateful bone in his body.”

President-elect Donald Trump selected Sessions as his attorney general last Friday.

But Democrats have raised red flags about Sessions, citing past controversies involving race and questioning his fitness to lead an agency responsible for protecting civil rights.

Thirty years ago, Sessions was denied a federal judge position over allegations he called the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union “un-American” and for allegedly joking that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was “OK” until he learned they smoked marijuana.

Sessions has vehemently denied those claims.

If confirmed, Sessions would succeed Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

Graham warned Democrats not to unfairly discredit Sessions with personal attacks.

“To my Democratic colleagues — you better watch what you do here,” he said. “This equation of being a conservative means you’re a racist — I’m not going to put up with that.

“All I can say is, if you declare war on Jeff Sessions the person, then you’re going to run into a lot of resistance and I think that’s really uncalled for. I’m not going to sit idly by and let Jeff Sessions be maligned as he doesn’t deserve that.”