California congressman calls Jeff Sessions 'a racist' and 'a liar'

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 24 April 2017

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has no qualms about going after President Trump and his administration, and on Sunday, he called Attorney General Jeff Sessions "a racist" and "a liar," following his controversial remarks about Hawaii.

Last week, while discussing Trump's second travel ban that would have kept people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, Sessions said he was "amazed" that a federal judge "sitting on an island in the Pacific" had the power to block such an executive order. Lawmakers from the island in the Pacific, a.k.a. the great state of Hawaii, immediately criticized his comments, including Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who said Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, "voted for that judge. And that island is called Oahu. It's my home. Have some respect."

During an appearance Sunday on This Week, Sessions said he couldn't understand why no one saw the hilarity in his statement, suggesting that "nobody has a sense of humor anymore." Lieu — whose Twitter cover image shows side-by-side photos of the crowds at former President Barack Obama's first inauguration and Trump's, and whose bio states he doesn't "take orders from Vladimir Putin" — tweeted in response, "Dear 'Attorney General' Sessions: You are a racist and a liar. Actually, just joking. Oh wait, your record shows you are a racist and a liar." Ha. Ha. Ha?

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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