Jeff Sessions: KKK-costumed protesters interrupt attorney general confirmation hearing

The Alabama senator has a controversial history

As police escorted the men out, one shouted: 'You can't arrest me, we’re white' (AP)

The confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s nomination for Attorney General began with a raucous disruption when two protesters wearing white sheets and Ku Klux Klan hats were escorted from the hearing.

Even before Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was sworn in to begin his testimony the two men began standing in chairs in the Senate hearing room, and claimed they were the senator’s supporters.

“Jefferson Beauregard, you speak for the people,” one of them said, calling the nominee by his first and middle name, according to the New York Daily News.

Mr Sessions was once turned down for a position as federal judge (AP)

As police escorted the two men out, one of them shouted: “You can’t arrest me, we’re white. White people don’t get arrested. I’m a white man!”

Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin claimed credit for the KKK-themed protesters, claiming the ejected men were part of her group.

Mr Sessions was the first of Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees to face the confirmation process at Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Mr Sessions’ 1986 nomination to a federal district judgeship was ended amid accusations that he had made racist comments during his time at the Department of Justice.

Democrats have pointed to those allegations in concert with the Justice Department’s oversight of issues such as voting rights and minority rights as reasons they are concerned about his nomination.

“Thirty years ago, the Senate rejected Sessions’ appointment to a federal judgeship because he was deemed too extreme then,” Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile said in a statement.