Trump Picks Sen. Jeff Sessions For Attorney General

Schumer’s warning also recalls how Sessions, a conservative, has long faced accusations of racial insensitivity. In 1985, Sessions, then a U.S. Attorney, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be a U.S. District Court judge but he was rejected the next year by the Senate Judiciary Committee for alleged racist biases in several cases.

Gen Flynn, a vocal critic of the Obama administration since he was ousted as director of the Defence Intelligence Agency in 2014, agrees with Mr Trump on renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal, strengthening ties with Russian Federation and intensifying the fight against Islamic extremists. Matthew Chapman, a contributor at the pro-Clinton site Shareblue, tweeted an upsetting rundown of what the Department of Justice might look like under Sessions. Orrin Hatch said Friday that President-elect Donald Trump is “very high” on Mitt Romney and wants to have a friendship with the 2012 GOP presidential nominee.

With the white nationalists of Trump’s GOP now controlling the legislative branch, there is no reason to believe the Senate would not confirm one of their fellow travelers.

Miller added that the Alabama senator had voted for President Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder to be the first black attorney general in 2009 and a congressional Gold Medal of Honor for Rosa Parks, a civil rights icon who refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Ala. The committee’s top Democrat, Vermont Sen. Sessions on many of our nation’s most important issues over the last four years. Sen.

He also argued for curbs on legal immigration on the grounds that it drives down wages for US workers. Sessions thought members of the group “were O.K. until I found out they smoked pot”, he said.

“Over the course of those months, I had a number of conversations with him, and in a number of those conversations, he made remarks that were deeply concerning”, Hebert said.

“Senator Sessions’ record suggests that he will carry on an old, ugly legacy in this country’s history when civil rights for African-Americans, women and minorities were not regarded as core American values”.

The former USA attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and Alabama attorney general isn’t without controversy. If confirmed, Sessions would lead the U.S. Department of Justice, which is tasked with the fair and impartial administration of justice. The American people deserve far better, but with Donald Trump at the helm, we know we won’t get it.

“The marijuana industry should be extraordinarily concerned about Jeff Sessions”, John Hudak, a marijuana policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview.

As attorney general for a president who campaigned on a “law and order” stance, Sessions is likely to depart from the priorities of his predecessors in the Obama administration, Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder. McCaw said that Sessions’ appointment would “signal a departure from the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation characterizing acts of violent ideologically motivated terrorism purported by individuals who identify as Muslim as now being Islamic extremism”. He said that Sessions felt the two groups “forced civil rights” down people’s throats.

Despite any policy differences, the Civil Rights Division is expected to continue enforcing civil rights laws, such as prosecuting police officers for egregious acts of violence against unarmed citizens.

The controversy over the selection of Sessions follows the announcement that Steve Bannon, Trump’s combative campaign chief, former head of Breitbart News, and a supporter of the alt-right would serve as the administration’s chief strategist.