Sessions unsuitable for nation’s top justice job

“If Sessions were to become the attorney general, the freedom and liberty of the historically marginalized would be severely threatened”, said Mckesson, who has protested in several cities demanding police reform to address bias against communities of color.

Mr. Pompeo, a three-term Republican and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is perhaps best known for his sharp criticism of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has also been selected as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, a position that does not require confirmation by the Senate.

The national security adviser works from the West Wing and is often one of the last people to meet with the president before major foreign policy decisions are made. The former federal prosecutor has questioned whether terrorism suspects should receive the protection of the American court system, objected to the planned closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and has given prominence to the specter of voting fraud, a problem that current Justice Department leadership believes is negligible. “Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him”.

Warren said by choosing the Alabama Republican, Trump is embracing the bigotry that fueled his campaign rallies instead of distancing himself from it. A formal announcement from the incoming administration is expected later Friday morning, sources said.

Pompeo says in a statement that he is “honored and humbled” to accept the nomination, calling the decision to leave his congressional seat hard. He denounced the Iran deal, which granted Tehran sanctions relief for rolling back its nuclear weapons program, and was a member of the congressional committee that blasted Hillary Clinton over the attack on a US diplomatic outpost in Libya. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed as president that he would reward those who were loyal to him. But his warmth toward Russia has anxious national security experts, particularly after he travelled to Moscow to join Russian President Vladimir Putin at a celebration for RT, a Kremlin-backed television channel. In February, he tweeted that “fear of Muslims is rational”.

He is highly respected as a decorated military intelligence officer who helped combat insurgent networks. Sessions’ track record of racism was so abhorrent that even the Republican-led Senate, which normally accommodated Reagan on almost every facet of his agenda, refused to confirm his appointment. Jeff Sessions is preparing to face fresh scrutiny for a decades’ old charge he made racially-charged comments while a US Attorney in his home state of Alabama.

“When the president-elect has called for an expansion of stop and frisk, and he’s nominated a senator with an atrocious record on civil rights, A and B do not spell justice for most Americans”, Brooks says.

During that hearing, Sessions was criticized for joking in the presence of a Civil Rights Division attorney that the Ku Klux Klan was “OK” until he learned they smoked marijuana.

Sessions said with this view, the government risked overreaching on the one hand by seeking high penalties that might not be entirely justified, while on the other it risked stopping short of issuing an indictment that was supported by the facts.

“I am confident his nomination will be widely supported within the Central Intelligence Agency, and I look forward to his fast approval by the Senate”, Mr. Nunes said.

His nomination was hailed on Friday by Republican Devin Nunes, the chairman of the intelligence committee, which will have to approve his appointment.

That’s according to a Trump transition official.

The moderate, failed presidential candidate – and formerly vehement critic of Trump – is thought to be in the running for secretary of state, alongside former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Of Trump’s new personnel picks, Flynn will have the most direct access to the president.

Chuck Schumer of NY said in a statement. The hard-line Republican shares much of Trump’s worldview. In 2012, he described Russian Federation as the top geopolitical threat – a sharp contrast to Trump, who has exchanged compliments with Putin.