Judiciary committee approves Sessions for AG

In the Senate Finance Committee, Democrats showed no sign of ending their boycott of committee votes on the nominations for Trump’s choice for health and human services secretary, Tom Price, or Treasury secretary pick, Steve Mnuchin.

Feinstein said she has “no confidence” Sessions would do that. He singled out Trump’s executive order Friday to halt the admission of immigrants from seven mostly Muslim nations and of all refugees. “That statement said what an independent attorney general should do”.

The partisan anger fueled by Trump’s decision to sign the executive order banning entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries and then fire acting Attorney General Sally Yates Monday night for denouncing it all but guarantees a titanic struggle over an even bigger job, Supreme Court justice, when Trump announces his pick Tuesday evening.

Republicans and Democrats split their vote and Sessions was approved by the committee in a 11-9 party-line vote wit only republicans supporting him and only Democrats voting no. If moved out of committee, Sessions’ nomination could be voted on by full Senate by the end of this week.

Democrats have consistently objected to Sessions, saying he is too close to President Donald Trump and has a poor record on civil and voting rights.

On Tuesday, the president took to Twitter to criticize the holdups.

“The attorney general is the people’s attorney”.

“My responsibility is to ensure that the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is, after consideration of all the facts”, she wrote.

“When the president of the United States lies about the existence of widespread voter fraud, it is the job of the attorney general to call him out on it”. He said he would abide by Supreme Court decisions on abortion rights and legalized same-sex marriage, although he opposes both.

Feinstein tied her objections to Sessions directly back to Trump’s firing of Yates. During the hearings earlier this month, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker became the first sitting senator to testify against a colleague for a cabinet position. He has devoted almost his entire adult life to public service and most of that service has directly related to the Department of Justice, serving Presidents of both parties, first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1975-1977 and then as a U.S. Attorney from 1981-1995. Our Senators need to know that not only do we have concerns over Sessions’ record on this issue, but are willing to stand up for our shared beliefs and defend our marijuana reform victories.

“. By promoting Homan, who most recently led the arm of ICE that enforces detentions and deportations, the Trump administration signaled its intent to place a greater emphasis on the harsh enforcement measures that Homan carried out”.