This post was updated Feb. 4 at 10:38 p.m.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised the second-term agenda of President Donald Trump – his former boss – at a Jan. 28 UCLA School of Law panel.

Sessions, a former Republican senator from Alabama, served as attorney general under the Trump administration from February 2017 to November 2018. Former California attorney general Bill Lockyer moderated the event, which was hosted by the Federalist Society and Young Americans for Freedom at UCLA.

Sessions said in an interview with the Daily Bruin that he chose to speak at UCLA to highlight conservative voices.

“I identify my own personal experience with being a conservative in a world that was not,” he said.

The two speakers began the event by discussing the nature of state and national attorney general positions. While Sessions said he believed the state attorney general position should be elected, he added that he believes the president should appoint the United States attorney general to further the administration’s policy goals.

Sessions also said on the panel that he believes the attorney general’s primary job is to remain loyal to the president’s agenda.

He added on the panel that he believed Sally Yates, a holdover from former President Barack Obama’s term who served as acting attorney general while Sessions awaited Senate confirmation, should have resigned after refusing to defend a Trump executive order that temporarily banned travel into the U.S. from several majority-Muslim countries.

Trump fired Yates shortly after her declaration.

“You should defend the law, the legislature or the governor’s action, unless, in defending it, it’s so bad you throw up,” Sessions said on the panel. “Who else is going to defend the duty of the elected governor or president’s agenda?”

Trump fired Sessions in 2018 over Sessions’ recusal from the Justice Department’s Robert Mueller special counsel investigation. The case looked into the involvement of Trump and his allies with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, but found no confirming evidence of collusion.

Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump’s 2016 campaign, said he recused himself because of ethics rules that prevent people listed as part of a candidate’s campaign from investigating it.

Sessions added on the panel that he submitted his first resignation letter following his recusal, which Trump rejected. Sessions officially ended his affiliation with the Trump administration following the November 2018 midterm elections.

“He sent back the letter I sent to him, and it said, ‘Not accepted. Make America Great Again,’” he said. “He waited until after the election and then fired me.”

Sessions said on the panel that he agrees with Trump’s strict immigration proposals, adding that he believes politicians should work out the exact number of people who should be let into the U.S. every year, along with the “talents” they must possess.

Trump signed a number of immigration-related executive orders in the first weeks of his presidency and has continuously pledged to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history” during his second term.

He added on the panel that he believes the idea of “open borders” – which he said has spread among politicians in recent years – is dangerous.

“We’ve got a very generous system,” he said. “We should probably moderate and reduce those numbers for a while.”

[Related: Undocumented students share fears of deportation under second Trump administration]

Sessions also discussed Trump’s recent executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, which a federal judge temporarily blocked. He said on the panel that he believes Trump’s executive order has a “valid defense” and that the case will inevitably reach the Supreme Court.

Citing his days in the Oval Office, Sessions said on the panel that those who question Trump’s intelligence are mistaken. He added that the president has an ability to make quick, steadfast decisions.

“Donald Trump is very smart,” he said on the panel. “They’re stupid to say he’s stupid.”

Chima Oluo, a second-year political science and public affairs student, said he attended the event to hear from the other side of the aisle. He added that his view of the former attorney general evolved after speaking to him in person.

“My main takeaway is, there’s a lot more that happens than you just see in the media,” he said. “There’s a lot more behind the scenes.”

Brian Fallas, president of the Federalist Society at UCLA, said he planned the event to amplify conservative perspectives and break away from “echo chambers.”

“I thought, ‘Let’s bring a high-profile conservative speaker to a school that doesn’t have too many conservative voices,’” Fallas said.

However, Fallas said the event was tailored for people of all political beliefs to attend. Matthew Weinberg, chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom at UCLA, said the event also intentionally had a Democrat moderator to provide balance.

“We knew there would be people on both sides coming,” he said. “We just want people to hear different views.”