U.S. Senate moves Jeff Sessions toward confirmation as attorney general

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday, in a procedural vote, cleared the way for confirming President Donald Trump's nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general.

By a vote of 52-47, the Republican-controlled Senate agreed to limit debate on Sessions. A final vote on confirming him to head the Justice Department, the nation's top law enforcement job, is likely sometime this week.

Sessions, as is the custom for senators voting on their own nominations, cast a vote of "present." </s> The Senate confirmed Republican Senator Jeff Sessions on Wednesday night as attorney general.

On Tuesday, Sessions had cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate.

Confirmation was expected on Wednesday in spite of Senate Democrats’ opposition to their colleague. </s> In this Jan. 10 photo, Attorney General-designate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate is working overtime toward confirming President Donald Trump's close ally, Sessions, to become the nation's top law enforcement officer as attorney general. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) </s> Republican Senator Jeff Sessions has accepted President-elect Donald Trump's offer to serve as attorney general, according to a member of Trump's transition team. Nathan Frandino reports. </s> WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The US Senate has confirmed Jeff Sessions as United States Attorney General.



One of Trump's most controversial nominees, Sessions was confirmed head of the Justice Department with a 52-47 vote.



Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted for the Alabama Republican Senator.



Sessions is only the eighth member of the Trump Cabinet to be confirmed. The others are the secretaries of State, Defense, Homeland Security, Education and Transportation, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, US Representative to the United Nations Nikki R. Haley, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The heads of several other Departments still await Senate confirmation.



Democrats had raised concerns about Sessions' level of independence from President Donald Trump as well as his record on issues such as immigration, civil rights, women's health, and voting rights.



During the debate, Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren was forced to stop reading a letter written by the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. on Tuesday after Senate Republicans voted to formally silence her for impugning a peer.



Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel attacked the Democrats for their effort to block Session's nomination.



'His long and lauded career proves Sen. Sessions is exactly the type of leader we need at the Department of Justice, and I am glad he will finally be able to take his place at the helm,' McDaniel said in a statement congratulating Sessions on his confirmation.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX </s> WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has confirmed Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general in the Trump administration.

The 52-47 vote broke largely along party lines and capped weeks of divisive battles over Sessions, an early supporter of Donald Trump and one of the Senate's most conservative Republicans.

Democrats laced into Sessions over his ties to Trump and his record on civil rights and immigration. Republicans lauded his four decades in public service and his commitment to fairness and the rule of law.

The nomination drew wide attention after an imbroglio in which Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren earned a rare rebuke for quoting Coretta Scott King, widow of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., criticizing Sessions in 1986.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> WASHINGTON: The US Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions as attorney general Wednesday, despite vitriolic debate over his civil rights record and whether he can serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer independent from President Donald Trump.

Lawmakers greenlighted Senator Sessions as the 84th US attorney general on a mostly party line vote of 52 to 47, with just one Democrat - Joe Manchin of West Virginia - joining the Republican majority.

Sessions voted present, and when the tally was announced many senators broke into extended applause for their colleague.

Trump has harangued Democrats for slow-walking his nominees, blasting their unprecedented obstruction as a "disgrace."

He appeared particularly angered by the delay on Sessions, who as attorney general would wield enormous power regarding the administration of justice, including on the issue of voting rights.

Sessions, widely seen as an inspiration for Trump's anti-immigration policies, is just the sixth of 15 cabinet members to be confirmed, in addition to the cabinet-rank positions of CIA director and US ambassador to the United Nations.

A day earlier senators broke into fiercely personal debate, which saw the Democrat Elizabeth Warren barred from speaking after she was deemed to have broken chamber rules on decorum.

Sessions takes charge of the Justice Department and its 113,000 employees, including the 93 US attorneys throughout the country.

He steps in amid a swirling legal debate over Trump's most controversial White House action to date, an executive order temporarily blocking all refugee arrivals and immigration from seven mainly Muslim countries.

The genteel Sessions, who like the president is 70, was an early loyal Trump supporter who became a pivotal figure in his campaign and transition team.

He was a US attorney for the southern district of Alabama from 1981 to 1993, before serving two years as the state's attorney general. He won a seat in the US Senate in 1996.

But in 1986 his career was almost derailed when a US Senate panel rejected his nomination for a judgeship amid concerns over past comments he made about blacks, and over remarks that appeared sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan. </s> Trump Names Picks For National Security Adviser, Attorney General, CIA Director

Enlarge this image toggle caption Jeff Swensen/Getty Images Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Updated at 11:45 a.m. ET

President-elect Donald Trump announced his selections today for three key posts: Michael Flynn for national security adviser, Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Rep. Mike Pompeo for CIA director.

Trump's selections signal that he is prioritizing loyalty as he chooses nominees for top posts — turning to people who were early and outspoken supporters of his campaign.

Sessions is a former U.S. attorney and current senator with lengthy experience with the Justice Department, but whose nomination for a federal judgeship was tanked by reports of racist comments. Flynn, a former lieutenant general, was pushed out of his role as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 after clashing with top staffers. Pompeo is a representative who served both on the House Intelligence Committee and on the Benghazi committee.

The attorney general and CIA director nominees will need to be confirmed by the Senate. The national security adviser does not need Senate confirmation.

Sen. Jeff Sessions

The 69-year-old Republican senator, who has been offered the position of attorney general, was one of the first lawmakers to ally himself with the Trump campaign. He embraces a forceful anti-immigration platform and a tough approach to fighting crime.

Sessions "is a world-class legal mind and considered a truly great Attorney General and U.S. Attorney in the state of Alabama," Trump said in a statement from his transition team.

"I am humbled to have been asked by President-elect Trump to serve as Attorney General of the United States," Sessions said. "My previous 15 years working in the Department of Justice were extraordinarily fulfilling. I love the Department, its people and its mission. I can think of no greater honor than to lead them."

Sessions is a former longtime U.S. attorney in Alabama who went on to serve as the top Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees Justice Department and FBI operations.

But earlier in his career, that same committee denied him a position as a lifetime-tenured federal judge after lawyers testified he had used racially insensitive language. Sessions apologized for saying he thought the KKK was OK "until I found out they smoked pot," describing the episode as a joke.

His positions on social issues including same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization and funding for stem-cell research are conservative.

As NPR's Ailsa Chang reported earlier this year, Sessions had a controversial career as a prosecutor and allegations of racism have followed him for decades. He first rose to national attention when he prosecuted three black civil rights workers for voter fraud; a defense lawyer called it "voter persecution," and the jury returned no convictions.

The president of the NAACP called Sessions' appointment "troubling," while a legislative counsel at the ACLU called him "the senator with probably the most anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-child record in the Senate."

Former Alabama Rep. Jo Bonner, a Republican from Sessions' hometown of Mobile, said President-elect Trump "has supreme confidence in Sen. Sessions' judgment, his wisdom, his character and his loyalty."

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee that will review Sessions' nomination, said in a statement:

"Senator Sessions has served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for many years so he's well aware of the thorough vetting he's about to receive. And while many of us have worked with Senator Sessions closely and know him to be a staunch advocate for his beliefs, the process will remain the same: a fair and complete review of the nominee. While Senator Sessions and I differ on a great many issues, I am committed to a full and fair process."

The current attorney general is Loretta Lynch, the first black woman in that position (as a child, she attended civil rights rallies in the South with her parents) and the former U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York.

Michael Flynn

Enlarge this image toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The brazen retired Army lieutenant general, who was also an early supporter of Trump, has been offered the position of national security adviser.

"General Flynn is one of the country's foremost experts on military and intelligence matters and he will be an invaluable asset to me and my administration," Trump said in the transition team statement.

Flynn said he was "deeply humbled and honored to accept the position as National Security Advisor to serve both our country and our nation's next President, Donald J. Trump."

Flynn has a track record of sharp elbows inside the U.S. intelligence community, as NPR's Tom Bowman wrote Friday. He was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's military-focused spy service, after pushing to send more operatives overseas and clashing with top staffers and his ultimate bosses in the White House:

"Within military circles, Flynn was a highly respected — though at times controversial — career intelligence officer. He worked his way up the ranks, including stints as the top intelligence officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as Gen. Stanley McChrystal's top aide in Afghanistan. ... "Flynn, by then a three-star general, went on to run the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's military-centered spy service. But the workforce there complained he was trying to push through too many changes, including sending more employees overseas. "Flynn argued that he was trying to get the bureaucracy to be more efficient, to do more. Critics said he couldn't run a large bureaucracy. He was forced out in 2014 after less than two years in the job."

Flynn's return to government in a top administration post could enable him to settle any outstanding scores within the intelligence world, depending on the support he receives from the president and the way Trump structures decision-making inside his national security apparatus.

During the Republican National Convention this summer, he joined in the chants of "Lock her up," in reference to Hillary Clinton. "It was a strange position for someone who was a career military officer and a registered Democrat from Rhode Island," Tom says.

Flynn, who recently wrote a book called The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies, has called President Obama "a liar" and has troubled some former colleagues with his partisan political work, Tom reports.

The current national security adviser is Susan Rice, the former U.N. ambassador who was sharply criticized by congressional Republicans for making what she later acknowledged were "incorrect" statements after the Benghazi attack.

Trump's national security picks, including the choice of Flynn, illustrate the choices his administration will face as it translate the promises and rhetoric of the campaign into governance.

For example, Flynn told NPR in August that he thought it would be impractical to impose a blanket ban on travel by Muslims from around the world to the United States. A full stop on such arrivals — which Trump later revised to a call for "extreme vetting" for those entering the U.S. — was one of Trump's signature campaign promises. As president and national security adviser, however, Trump and Flynn must decide how much of either idea they take into the new administration and try to make into reality.

Another critical issue is the U.S. relationship with Russia. Candidate Trump repeated that he wanted better ties with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, and for the two countries to work together in Syria to fight the Islamic State. (President Obama pursued such a deal but could not conclude one with Moscow.) Flynn's situation is even more nuanced. He's called Russia "an enemy" of the U.S. in his public comments and suggested in a book this year that it's part of a global axis arrayed against the United States. But Flynn also traveled to Moscow last year as a guest of Putin for a banquet celebrating the Russian state news agency RT, part of the Kremlin's propaganda operation targeting the West.

RT quoted a description of Flynn as a 'Russia-loving' appointment in its headline on Friday.

Rep. Mike Pompeo

Enlarge this image toggle caption Jacquelyn Martin/AP Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Pompeo, a third-term Republican congressman from Kansas, has been offered the post of CIA director.

"I am honored to have been given this opportunity to serve and to work alongside President-elect Donald J. Trump to keep America safe. I also look forward to working with America's intelligence warriors, who do so much to protect Americans each and every day," Pompeo said.

According to his congressional biography, he graduated from West Point and served as a cavalry officer. He attended Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, before entering business as an executive in aerospace manufacturing and the oil industry.

Politics Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo Weighs In On House Benghazi Committee Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo Weighs In On House Benghazi Committee Listen · 6:06 6:06

He served on the Energy and Commerce committee as well as the House Intelligence Committee, and was a member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

The current CIA director is John Brennan, who joined the CIA in 1980 and was a station chief in Saudi Arabia and the chief of the national counterterrorism center.

Like Flynn, Pompeo — if confirmed as CIA director — would face decisions about how much of Trump's campaign rhetoric to attempt to implement as policy.

Pompeo has been as critical as Trump of the Iran nuclear deal, for example — would the two work together to dismantle it, or focus on other ways to try to punish Tehran? </s> US Senate(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Jeff Sessions has been confirmed as the new attorney general of the United States.

The Senate voted tonight 52-47 in favor of Sessions’ confirmation, marking the conclusion to a bitter battle over his nomination.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the lone Democrat to vote for confirmation, while Sessions himself voted present.

The Alabama Republican, 70, faced a contentious confirmation process. His nomination for the position had been strongly opposed by Democrats and civil rights groups since then-President-elect Donald Trump tapped him in mid-November. Many critics have cited concerns about past allegations of racism, his record on civil rights and immigration and his failure to be confirmed as a federal judge in 1986 as key points of contention.

Sessions attempted to address some of these concerns during his cabinet hearing in early-January. Speaking to allegations that he had made racist remarks decades ago as Alabama attorney general, 

Sessions said, “I hope my tenure in this body shows you that the caricature of me wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t accurate then, and it’s not accurate now.”

His reputation and qualifications for the attorney general post were also defended by a number of his Republican colleagues.

“He is a man of honor and integrity, dedicated to the faithful and fair enforcement of the law, who knows well and deeply respects the Department of Justice and its role,” Senate Judiciary 

Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in his opening remarks.

The two days of hearings were marked by intense grilling from Democrats and numerous interruptions by protesters. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., both testified against 

Sessions.

“Those who are committed to equal justice in our society wonder whether Sen. Sessions’ call for ‘law and order’ will mean today what it meant in Alabama, when I was coming up back then,” Lewis said 

in his testimony. “The rule of law was used to violate the human and civil rights of the poor, the dispossessed, people of color.”

Democrats were successful in delaying the Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Sessions once. Before tonight’s floor vote, they held around-the-clock speeches in opposition to his confirmation.
The United States Senate, in a 52 to 47 vote, confirms the nomination of Jeff Sessions as United States Attorney General.