Trump shifts to right by tapping Sessions, Pompeo, Flynn

“No one will work harder than Jeff Sessions to defend the freedoms and safety of all Americans as Attorney General”, Jim DeMint, former U.S. Senator and President of the Heritage Foundation, said. Jeff Sessions for attorney general.

President-elect Donald Trump has offered the Central Intelligence Agency director job to Mike Pompeo, a hard-line Republican congressman from Kansas who heavily criticized the Iran deal, blasted Hillary Clinton over the attack on a USA diplomatic outpost in Libya and believes Edward Snowden is a traitor.

While Donald Trump spoke about being a president “for all Americans” on election night, the cabinet taking shape is decidedly hardline conservative. It has been more concerned with pushing politics than administering the law.

At the Senate Judiciary hearing then, Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy called Sessions “a throwback to a shameful era”. In all likelihood Sessions will be confirmed on close to a party-line vote; the question is how big a toll it will take on an administration barely getting its feet wet. Jeff Sessions as his US attorney general Friday.

Abe said after their NY meeting that he could have “great confidence” in Trump as a US leader.

On Twitter, the NAACP called Sessions’ nomination “deeply troubling” and said it “supports an old, ugly history where Civil Rights were not regarded as core American values”.

Yet Sessions could deal a blow to state marijuana laws as attorney general.

The expected focus on Sessions’ record on race, policing and immigration comes as the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has surged in prominence under the Obama administration. “We are Americans first”. Trump has said he planned to reward loyalty, and demonstrated such with his nomination of Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse him. Her most visceral reaction to Trump’s picks? Senators from both parties cited his racist comments, hostility towards civil rights groups and a temperament considered unworthy of a federal judge. Senator Sessions is the most anti-immigrant Senator in the chamber.

“The scariest part of his potential administration will be how his political debts to the alt-right will manifest itself in his administration and policies”, Bolden said. Sessions was accused of making racist comments while serving as the US attorney in Alabama and withdrew his consideration for a federal judgeship in 1986, according to the AP.

Mr Sessions admitted to making some of those remarks in private conversations but stressed that he not a racist. “I deny as strongly as I can express it that I am insensitive to the concerns of blacks”. “I have done my job with integrity”.

Trump did not announce his Cabinet choices in person, instead releasing a statement. Bannon’s news website has peddled conspiracy theories, white nationalism and anti-Semitism. LaMalfa said he believes people will discover they agree with the new president on several issues.

Trump is on record claiming U.S. “drug enforcement is a joke” and drugs should be legalized to ‘take the profit away from these drug czars’.

“The strength of our nation derives in such large measure from its rich tapestry of racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds, Harris added”. He was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency until 2014, when he was relieved of his duties.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army three-star general, was assistant director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, but was sacked in 2014. It’s unclear if Pompeo’s views on using harsh interrogation techniques completely mirror those of Trump, who says: “We should go tougher than waterboarding”, which simulates drowning. In August, he said Islam is a “political ideology”, not a religion, and is “like cancer”.

Leon Panetta, who also served as CIA director, said his impression of Pompeo “is that he is a serious-minded supporter of strong, credible intelligence”.

Pompeo has called Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked National Security Agency secrets, a “traitor” who should be “given a death sentence”.

Pompeo has said that Muslim leaders are “potentially complicit” in terrorist attacks if they do not denounce violence conducted in the name of Islam.

The Kansas congressman is a member of the House intelligence committee.

Sessions, like Mike Flynn, is not a conciliatory pick or one that will win Trump plaudits from his critics on either side of the aisle.

After meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday evening, Trump continued his outreach to world leaders on Friday by speaking by phone with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Trump, a reality television star, business mogul and political newcomer, also rolled out new teams that will interact with the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department and other national security agencies as part of the government transition before his January 20 inauguration.

Trump and his transition team traveled Friday from Trump Tower to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Mr Trump responded by repeatedly referring to Mr Romney as a “loser”.

He has also been loyal to Trump throughout his presidential campaign, offering national security advise before Trump won the election.

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