U.S. Senate Confirms Jeff Sessions as Attorney General

SESSIONS CONFIRMED …

As reported at the Hill, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next attorney general. The vote was 52-47, with only one Democrat voting for Sessions, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). Many Democrats seem to think that Sessions will not act independently of President Trump; however, they had no issue when former AG’s Eric Holder and Lorretta Lynch marched in lockstep with Barack Obama. With Sessions now the new AG, his senate seat needs to be filled and according to the Politico, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley will name Luther Strange, Alabama’s attorney general, on Thursday morning to replace him in the Senate.

The Senate voted Wednesday night to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general, capping a vicious debate that left Democrats and Republicans alike seething at times.

No Republicans went against Sessions in the 52-47 vote. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was the only Democrat to back Sessions.

While Republicans broke out into applause after the vote closed, Democrats largely stood silently. A handful of Democratic senators — including Manchin, Sen. Joe Donnelly (W.Va.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.) — went over and shook Sessions’s hand after the vote. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who didn’t support Sessions, hugged him on the Senate floor.

The fight over Sessions escalated this week, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) read a letter that Coretta Scott King had written in 1986 that accused Sessions, a U.S. attorney at the time, of using the power of his office to prevent blacks from voting.