Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s speech at Northwestern University on Tuesday night was disrupted by student protests.
Sessions, whose speech was entitled “The Real Meaning of the Trump Agenda,” was brought to the Chicago-area school by a campus group, the Northwestern University College Republicans.
{mosads}“I’m just going to tell you, this is stupid,” Sessions said at the beginning of his talk.
“They can have a right to do it, OK, but at some point I have to speak,” he continued. “You shouldn’t be blaming young Republicans for meticulously defending their beliefs and putting up with this kind of trash.”
According to The Daily Northwestern, students pounded on the doors to Lutkin Hall, where the talk was being held, and yelled phrases like “F–– Jeff Sessions” and “You are a racist, you put kids in cages.”
A video posted to Twitter also shows student protesters trying to enter through the back of the building.
The event was free and open to the public.
During the speech, Sessions touched on many topics, from wage stagnation to his support of a merit-based immigration system, a policy that President Trump has been trying to implement.
Merit-based immigration along with a border wall, Sessions said, would best serve “the interests of Americans,” the college paper reports.
After he talked, Sessions answered questions from students. One student asked the former Alabama senator whether whistleblowers should be allowed to be cross-examined.
“Whistleblowers have certain protections, no doubt about it,” Sessions noted.
“But if they have a right to testify and don’t testify, the impact of their charges and complaints is greatly diminished.”
Sessions served as the country’s attorney general from February 2017 to November 2018. The 72-year-old resigned after suffering a falling out with Trump who repeatedly criticized him for recusing himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia’s election interference.
During his tenure, Sessions also drew heavy criticism for his “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, which caused migrant families to be separated at the U.S. southern border. The policy has since been rolled back.
Recently, Sessions has floated the idea of making a run for the Senate next year. Sessions could face a tough fight, with other Alabama Republicans in the field and with Trump’s criticism of him likely to gain more attention.
“Well, I like Jeff,” his former colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters on Tuesday. “I thought he was a great senator, but the whole campaign will be about what Trump said about Sessions. And I just can imagine that be kind of kind of ugly.”