Senator Jeff Sessions, who is reportedly a leading candidate to be attorney general or secretary of defense in the Trump administration, has been accused in a front-page article in The New York Times of making racist statements 35 years ago. One African-American prosecutor testified that Mr. Sessions had called him “boy” and joked that he thought that the Ku Klux Klan “was O.K. until I found out they smoked pot.” Mr. Sessions denied calling the lawyer “boy” but acknowledged or did not dispute the substance of the other remarks. Mr. Sessions said his comment about the Klan was meant as a joke and said it was so preposterous — especially since he was in the middle of prosecuting a case involving the group — that he thought nobody could take it seriously. Asked whether he ever said the N.A.A.C.P. hates white people or was “a commie group and a pinko organization,” Mr. Sessions said he could not recall specifically saying...(Read Full Post)