During a speech to a conservative criminal justice organization in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called critics of the Trump administration’s family separations “the lunatic fringe” and joked about the policy to laughter and applause, according to a Tuesday Hill report.
“The rhetoric we hear from the other side on this issue, as on many others, has become radicalized,” Sessions said. “We hear views on television today that are on the lunatic fringe, frankly.”
“And what is perhaps more galling is the hypocrisy,” he continued. “These same people live in gated communities, many of them, and are featured at events where you have to have an ID to even come in and hear them speak. They like a little security around themselves.”
“And if you try to scale the fence, believe me, they’d be even too happy to have you arrested and separated from your children,” he said. The room erupted into laughter and cheers.
“They want borders in their lives, but not in yours,” he concluded.
Watch below:
Jeff Sessions cracks joke about family separation to laughter and applause at speech in Los Angeles. https://t.co/319jARULTx pic.twitter.com/FT3zwOBIzy
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 27, 2018