Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D)-IL spoke at the We the People Summit in Washington DC., on Wednesday (June 13), about the divisive environment that now exists in America. He also spoke about the attacks on immigrants, separation of families, ill-treatment of people of color and other groups who've been increasingly discriminated against recently.
But what caught the media's attention was the Congressman's bold accusations and assertions that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would “love for black people to be in the back of the bus. He'd love women to be in the kitchen.
He’d love for gay people to be in the closet and for me not to have a microphone to be able to speak to anybody,” CNN cited.
Luis Guiterrez stands by his comments
Later that afternoon, Gutierrez gave an interview to CNN’s Erin Burnett who tried to find logic in why the Congressman would make bold statement's about the attorney general and questioned if he really believed his comments.
To Burnett's surprise, and probably many viewers, Gutierrez responded with a firm resolve of "absolutely.' He added that he stands by everything he'd said.
Congressman cites examples of racism against Black Americans
Gutierrez, who serves on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has always been outspoken on race relations in the US.
He's been very vocal since Trump took office and began making public remarks about minorities. The remarks have been considered insensitive, racist, and xenophobic by Americans who value ethnic, social and cultural diversity.
According to Luis, Donald Trump's rhetoric was the linkage for his beliefs about Jeff Sessions and his alleged views on minority groups, saying that Sessions works for the president and he "protects" him.
But it wasn't just Trump's rhetoric that caused the congressman to draw a correlation of the Trump-Sessions mindset. He passionately cited the attorney general's track record as a US state attorney and Alabama politician leading to his current position.
Gutierrez recalled a time when Sessions went before the Senate to become a federal judge and Coretta Scott King came forward to speak against his serving on the bench.
This was because he had a record of referring to black men as “boys," said Gutierrez. He went on to say that Sessions had also tried to "diminish and strip Black people and a US senator of their voting rights" and that it was instances like the aforementioned that he conjoined the mindsets of the POTUS and his attorney general. He also added that for every comment he made there was a "footnote" to serve as proof or the two's ideologies.
Gutierrez claims other groups have been discriminated against by the Trump administration
Viewers were reminded by Luis that one of the first speeches given by President Trump after assuming office contained inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants calling them murderers, rapists, and drug dealers on Twitter, while likening the population to animals.
He also reminded the audience that Trump once tried to discredit a US judge indicating that he could not be fair because of his ethnicity and Mexican heritage.
However, one example the lawmaker did not mention was the White House's position on immigrants not being smart or skilled enough to assimilate in the US. This was a view expressed by Chief of Staff John Kelly in a May 10 NPR (National Public Radio) interview that drew the ire and scrutiny of the public, especially immigrants.
Claims of Trump administration promoting hate, racism, and genderism
In defense of his comments, the congressman reiterated that Sessions is in alignment with the president and cited the 2017 Charlottesville tragedy as proof of the Trump and Sessions' belief system.
It was a protest which turned fatal and one that Americans will not soon forget.
"We know what happened in Charlottesville, we know where he’s at,” said Gutierrez, suggesting that there are many who do not support Trump's school of thought of there being "fine people on both sides." This public statement was made by the POTUS in an attempt to defend and morally equate the white supremacists with the peace-protestors.
As if the racial and xenophobic examples already given were not enough evidence, Gutierrez pointed to Sessions' vote against the “Violence against Women Act” saying, he’s "never stood up for women" adding a rhetorical question that Sessions "can't support women who sustain abuse?"
He also highlighted what he called another footnote about Jeff Sessions protecting Trump when the US president proposed to ban transgender people from the US military.
Did the congressman go too far?
The CNN host asked if the congressman was inciting division and perhaps went too far in his comments? Burnett told the congressman that according to the former DA in Mobile, Alabama, a state stained by racism since slavery, that then-US states attorney Jeff Sessions was personally responsible for getting the resources that led to the conviction for the head of the state’s the KKK (Ku Klux Klan). This was a historical piece that Gutierrez did not refute. Instead, he asserted "Sometimes people do one good thing but that’s not who they are."
Gutierrez says he will continue to speak out
Burnett pushed her questioning a bit further, reminding Gutierrez that his "back of the bus" comment was a serious accusation, and again asked if he was going too far.
Guitierrez answered that he was simply "clarifying and amplifying the positions of the extremists" and that if he did not speak out to denounce prejudice, racism, and bigotry, it would be "allowing for the creation of a fascist society." And with that, he promised that as a member of Congress, he would continue speaking out.
So now it appears that not only has President Trump isolated America from its allies with his recent G-7 summit comments about Russia with the support of the Republican Party: He and his administration have collectively managed to divide and distance people in the nation. The USA is a nation whose values and very name contains a once shared belief: United.
