Before Donald Trump's pick for attorney general Jeff Sessions even got a chance to speak, several protesters dressed like members of the Ku Klux Klan made their views known as they shouted down 'Jefferson Bearegard' and called the senator a 'racist.'

Sessions, as his own witness, opened up the hearing by pushing back at allegations of racial insensitivity that plagued his 1986 nomination in front of the same Senate panel to the federal district court bench.

He called charges of racism 'damnably false.'

The longtime senator from Alabama, who was the first in the upper chamber to endorse the president-elect, told lawmakers that he would recuse himself from going after Hillary Clinton.

'This country does not punish its political enemies,' he said.

Sessions seemed to break with Trump in saying that he didn't support a Muslim ban, a pitch the Republican candidate made, but later revised.

He also suggested he wouldn't support waterboarding, calling it 'absolutely' illegal, while also expressing confidence in the FBI and other intelligence agencies who have pointed a finger toward Russia in explaining the Democrats' election year hacks.

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Protesters dressed like members of the Ku Klux Klan interrupted the Jeff Sessions hearing before it even began calling out 'Jefferson Bearegard' as a 'racist'

Sen. Jeff Sessions awaited his turn to speak with his granddaughter on his lap. Four of the attorney general nominee's grandkids attended today's confirmation hearing

Sen. Jeff Sessions (right) appears at his confirmation hearing as protesters wearing KKK garments wave at him in the background

While staunchly pro-life, saying he considered Roe v. Wade 'unconstitutional,' he also said he would support the nation's abortion laws, because as attorney general he needed to back the laws of the land.

In the early moments of the hearing, Sessions sat in the crowd with his young granddaughter perched on his lap. Four grandchildren, overall, were attending the Senate session today.

Protesters, some dressed in white hoods to represent the KKK, started screaming out before Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee chair, could even begin.

Subsequent outbursts from protesters, which were quickly subdued by Capitol security, plagued the first day of testimony, with some people there representing Codepink and others 'Black Lives Matter.'

When Grassley began, he brought up the Ku Klux Klan too – but Sessions' record in going after it.

Grassley talked about how Sessions oversaw the investigation of Klansman Francis Hays 'for the brutal abduction and murder of a black teenager Michael Donald.'

'He made sure that case was brought to state court where the defendant was eligible for and received the punishment that he justly deserved: the death penalty,' Grassley said.

Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions (center) enters his confirmation hearing alongside Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R- Iowa

Members of the group Codepink were also on hand at today's confirmation sessions for attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions

When it was Sessions' turn to speak to the senators, he wanted to get the hurdles that hurt him decades ago, quickly out of the way.

WHO IS JEFF SESSIONS? President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general Jeff Sessions has served in the U.S. Senate for Alabama since 1997. Before that, he was his state's attorney general and prior to that a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 to serve on the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Alabama, but he didn't make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, a panel he later served on as a U.S. senator. It's the group he's testifying before today. Advertisement

'Let me address another issue straight on,' he began.

In his own words, Sessions explained why his nomination by President Ronald Reagan was thwarted.

'I was accused in 1986 of failing to protect the voting rights of African-Americans by presenting the Perry County case, the voter fraud case, and of condemning civil rights advocates and organization.'

'And even harboring, amazingly, sympathies for the KKK,' Sessions continued.

Sessions labeled the voter fraud case a 'voting rights' case saying that African-Americans had complained that their votes had been stolen or altered by the trio of civil rights activists dubbed the 'Marion Three.'

In January 1985, Evelyn Turner, along with her husband, Albert Turner Sr., and Spencer Hogue Jr. were indicted by a grand jury on 29 counts for allegedly altering absentee ballots in support of candidates endorsed by the Perry County Civic League.

Speaking today, Evelyn Turner still contends that the charges were racially motivated, saying to CNN of Sessions: 'Have you ever known a leopard to change his spots? I haven't ... Sessions is still a racist.'

'As for the KKK, I invited civil rights attorneys from D.C. to help us solve a very difficult investigation into the unconscionable, horrendous death of a young African-American coming home from the 7-11 store one night, simply because he was black,' Sessions explained, bringing up the death penalty case that Grassley referred to in the chairman's opening remarks.

The case involved the killing of 19-year-old Michael Donald in 1981, a black teenager hung from a tree by two Klansman, Tiger Knowles and Henry Hays, the son of Bennie Hays, the second-ranking Ku Klux Klan member in the state at the time.

Henry Hays would die in the electric chair in 1997, the first execution in Alabama since 1913 for someone convicted of white-on-black crime.

'I would say it has been very disappointing and painful to have it suggest that I think the Klan was OK, when we did everything possible to destroy and defeat and prosecute the Klan members involved in this crime,' Sessions later said to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was recalling the story of how this death penalty case also financially strapped the KKK.

Sessions had sung a similar tune when asked about it by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

'I am from South Carolina so I know what it means to be accused of being a conservative from the South – meaning a racist or a bigot. How does that make you feel?' Graham asked.

In his opening statement, Sessions added that he never called the NAACP 'un-American,' another charge leveled at him in the 1980s.

'Or that a civil rights attorney was a "disgrace to his race,"' addressing yet another comment that he allegedly said to a white lawyer defending a black client, which came out during the hearing held in front of the same committee, but 30-plus years ago.

Sessions also addressed a more recent past, telling the panel that he would recuse himself from any investigations involving Trump's political rival because of comments he made during the 'contentious' presidential campaign.

'I've given that thought, I believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from questions involving those kinds of investigations involving Secretary Clinton that were raised during the campaign and could be otherwise connected to it,' Sessions said to the senators.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-.R.I., asked Sessions if he ever chanted 'lock her up,' a rallying cry among Trump supporters to punish Clinton for misdeeds.

'No I did not. I don't think,' he answered. 'I heard it at rallies and so forth, sometimes humorously done.'

Sessions noted that he did say a 'few things,' including calling for a special prosecutor.

'I think that is one of the reasons I believe I should not make any decisions about any such case,' Sessions added.

The attorney general nominee was also asked to explain his position on Trump's highly controversial Muslim ban, which the Republican candidate first announced last December in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attack, but has since revised.

Protesters, some of whom belonged to the group Code Pink, would occasionally cause a stir today in the Senate hearing room

'I have no belief and do not support the idea that Muslims as a religious group should be denied admission to the United States,' Sessions said.

Graham asked Sessions if he believed Russia was behind the election year hacks.

'I have done no research into that, I know just what the media says about it,' Sessions answered.

'Do you like the FBI?' Graham followed up with. Sessions answered that some of his best friends work for the agency.

Graham noted how the FBI came to the conclusion that Russians were involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails.

Graham asked the nominee if there was any reason to be suspicious of the FBI.

'I'm sure it was honorably reached,' Sessions said of the agency's conclusion.

Later, in the context of the Russia hacks, when asked if he would charge the president of crimes if it was warranted he answered yes.

'If there are laws violated, and they can be prosecuted, then of course you’d have to handle that in the appropriate way,' Sessions said.

In the Tuesday afternoon session, Sen. Patrick Leahy brought up Trump's comments exposed in the leak of a 2005 Access Hollywood tape, in which the billionaire boasted about grabbing women by 'the p****.'

Another protester got tossed from today's confirmation hearing for Sen. Jeff Sessions, in the early moments of the two-day affair

'Is grabbing a woman by her genitals without consent, is that sexual assault?' Leahy asked.

'Clearly it would be,' the Alabama senator answered.

Leahy then asked if Sessions would be willing to prosecute a president, or other high-ranking government official, if there was a federal sexual assault case built.

'The president is subject to certain lawful restrictions and they would be required to be applied by the appropriate law enforcement official, if appropriate, yes,' Sessions said.

Late in the day, Sessions was asked his take on Trump's claim that he would have won the popular vote too, 'if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.'

Sessions declined to say if he agreed, though when prompted by questioning from Sen. Al Franken answered, 'I do believe we regularly have fraudulent activity happen during election cycles.'

There are nearly zero instances of proven voter fraud.

Sessions spent the first portion of the confirmation answering questions posed to him by the Senate panel.

Throughout the day, the hearing was interrupted by protesters who were promptly kicked out.

As Cruz delivered a lengthy comment in Sessions' direction, at the start of the afternoon session, someone yelled loudly the chant of 'Black Lives Matter.'

Tomorrow witnesses will be called on his behalf and, by Democrats, to speak against the nominee.

Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who called out Donald Trump for the Republicans' comments on Muslims at the Democratic National Convention, attened the Jeff Sessions hearing

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton attended the first day of confirmation hearings for Sen. Jeff Sessions

After that, a third set of witnesses will be called and for the first time ever a sitting senator, Democrat Cory Booker, will testify against a peer, as the New Jersey lawmaker called Sessions' views 'a real danger to our country.'

'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,' Booker said yesterday on MSNBC.

Civil rights leader, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., will also testify against the Republican.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the committee's new ranking member, noted in her introduction how many of her colleagues on Judiciary had worked alongside Sessions for 20 years.

'And that makes this very difficult for me,' she said, as many Democrats, along with progressive groups, are waging a war against Sessions, considered one of the president-elect's more controversial picks.

The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, defended Jeff Sessions' record on civil rights as he kicked off the hearing

Sen. Jeff Sessions (center) waits for questions from senators flanked by his wife Mary (left) and their granddaughter

Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, was one of two lawmakers who spoke on behalf of Jeff Sessions' attorney general nomination before the Alabama Republican took the hot seat

Progressive activists could be found in the audience, taking things in.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton was spotted in the Capitol Hill crowd.

So was Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who called out Trump for the Republican's comments on Muslims at the Democratic National Convention.

To kick off the day's events, Sessions got the blessing of his other home state lawmaker, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

But in a more politically-astute move, moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was also asked to praise Trump's attorney general nominee.

Collins is known to break with her party on occasion and vote the Democratic way.

The idea of putting her front and center was to display that Sessions had the support of both the right-wing and the center of the president-elect's political party.

'Jeff Sessions is the same genuine, fair-minded person in unguarded private moments as he is in the halls of the Senate,' Collins cooed, arguing that he's had to endure 'very painful attacks on his character.'

So far, the Sessions hearing is expected to last two days, but could extend longer.

Republicans are trying to hand deliver cabinet officials to Trump before inauguration.