Giuliani: Calling Sessions racist ‘intellectually dishonest’

Rudy Giuliani says critics who claim Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is racist are being “dishonest.”

“This is ridiculous,” Giuliani said of the accusations against Sessions on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” Tuesday. “They’re playing a game.”

“The ones who come up there and do that are being intellectually dishonest,” he added.

{mosads}Giuliani cited Sessions’s past work as Alabama’s attorney general.

“This was a guy who prosecuted the [Ku Klux] Klan, one life sentence, one, I think, death sentence,” he said. “This is a guy who brought desegregation cases for rural districts. Come on.

“[Sessions has] been in the Senate all these years,” added Giuliani. “Every one of those senators knows he’s not a racist.”

Giuliani’s comments came ahead of Sessions’s Tuesday confirmation hearing to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.

Sessions has emerged as one of Trump’s most polarizing picks.

Critics say Sessions has a poor record of defending civil and voting rights, particularly for minorities.

And they are revisiting allegations that surfaced when Sessions was rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986. At those hearings, witnesses claimed that Sessions made racially insensitive remarks — for example, allegedly calling the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) “un-American.”

Sessions has denied making those remarks, but Democrats are likely to have him revisit those claims during the hearings.

His supporters say Sessions defended civil liberties and has the experience needed to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.

Republicans hold the Senate majority, however, making it likely he will receive the 51 votes needed for confirmation.

Both Giuliani and Sessions endorsed Trump before his primary win.