Sessions’ selection caps freaky year for Alabama politics

Jeff Sessions for attorney general and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for national security advisor that were announced Friday.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama talks to the media at Trump Tower in New York Thursday. She said she never before felt the need to fight anti-Semitism, but now thinks that she must.

“Every American should be concerned about the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice and oppose any nominee who threatens to turn back the clock on civil rights by 50 years”, said National Urban League President Marc Morial. They promise to re-investigate the charges to determine if they are still relevant.

At one point, Sessions said that the KKK was fine “until I found out they smoked pot”. “I was going to take him at his word”, said Blount.

Sessions’ peers on the Senate Judiciary Committee will nearly certainly delve into the Alabama senator’s past statements on race at his confirmation hearing. That was not accurate. He must be confirmed by the Senate.

Catherine Cortez Masto, who won Nevada to become the first Latina senator, said Trump’s choice was “unacceptable”, while the Congressional Black Caucus said Sessions would “set us back in the advancement of civil rights and race relations across the country”.

Sessions was the first USA senator to officially endorse Trump for president in February during the Republican primary. While an unabashed businessman, Trump was highly critical of Hillary Clinton’s ties to Wall Street, accusing his Democratic rival of being beholden to the interests of big investment banks.

“The torture used during that time was beyond any legal justification, it certainly was not supported by the Constitution and the full Senate Intelligence committee was only briefed on this program hours before President (George W.) Bush made it public”, said Feinstein, who called the interrogation program “ineffective” and “brutal”. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said it was a mistake.

After the Weekly Standard story ran, Sessions released a statement asserting the reporter had misrepresented his feelings on the matter.

Not that Sessions will have an easy road to confirmation. “Jeff Sessions is one of those manifestations … to be in control not only of justice in America, but really to bring injustice to America”.

Leahy voted against Sessions for a district judgeship when he last came before the Judiciary Committee in 1986.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told ABC News’ Malka Abramoff it was “an absolutely wonderful [pick.]” He added, “I give a standing ovation”. “Sessions is egalitarian”, Specter told reporters.

Upon choosing Sessions for the attorney general position, Trump also chose [Guardian report] Republican Representative Mike Pompeo as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and retired general Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.

The hard topic of race relations is never far from the surface in the Capitol, where momentous battles over slavery and civil rights were fought out on the House and Senate floors.

Sessions is certainly not the first senator to grapple with racial issues but still advance his career. Early backers and those who served key roles in Trump’s campaign will continue to form the inner circle of a Trump administration filled with a combination of experienced, Washington insiders and controversial outsiders, including some whose selection has sparked anger and alarm.

Democratic Party leaders were not as optimistic as Republican ones. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, hinted as much on Friday, saying the “American people deserve to learn about Senator Sessions’ record”.

Sessions is also the leading opponent of the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) and TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) in the Senate.

After selling that company, with financial support from the influential conservative billionaire Koch brothers he was elected in Kansas in 2010 to the House of Representatives, where he was a member of the hardline Tea Party faction.

“He stepped into the fray not realizing the grave political situation he was in”. He later said that was a joke. In October, Geo Group, one of the largest private prison corporations, hired two former Sessions aides to lobby in favor of outsourcing federal corrections to private contractors, according to Politico Influence.

“That was wrong then and it is equally wrong today”, Bonner says.