
Senator Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Attorney General, is a stalwart opponent of civil rights. In an unprecedented move, Senator Cory Booker, one of only three sitting Black Senators in the U.S. Senate, will testify against Sessions during his nomination hearing.

For the first time, a sitting Senator will testify against another sitting Senator when Cory Booker (D-NJ) appears before the Judiciary Committee during Jeff Sessions' (R-AL) nomination hearing for Attorney General.

Booker explained his remarkable decision to MSNBC's Chris Hayes:

HAYES: Concretely, does that mean, for instance, voting against Jeff Sessions, your former colleague? Does that mean pushing the Democratic leadership team to demand these thirty hours, to try to extend the process? What does it mean concretely? BOOKER: Well, concretely, I'm breaking a pretty long Senate tradition by actually being a sitting Senator testifying tomorrow against another sitting Senator. So, please understand, I think these are extraordinary times and they call for extraordinary measures. HAYES: You'll be testifying against your former colleague Jeff Sessions tomorrow in that hearing? BOOKER: I'll be testifying against my current colleague, either tomorrow or Wednesday.


Booker further noted: "We've seen Jeff Sessions — that's Senator Jeff Sessions — consistently voting against or speaking out against key ideals of the Voting Rights Act, taking measures to try to block criminal justice reform. He has a posture and a positioning that I think represent a real danger to our country."

Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), will also be testifying against Sessions, though the Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), has reportedly said he will only let them testify at the end of the hearing.

Interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile explained in a statement why the resistance to Sessions' nomination is so important to Democrats: