Despitre relentless obstructionism by Democrats, a Senate committee voted to confirm Jeff Sessions to be the next US attorney general on Wednesday, two days after the growing controversy surrounding President Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim nations led to the firing of the acting AG for “betrayal.” Sessions’ nomination now goes to the Senate floor, where he is expected to be confirmed easily given the GOP’s 52-seat majority.
The confirmation vote came as Senate Democrats have sought to block other Trump nominees, including Steve Mnuchin, Tom Price, and Scott Pruitt.
The Alabama senator’s path to confirmation was made more complicated by Trump’s firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who deemed the president’s order illegal and said she would not have Justice attorneys defend it. Committee Democrats on Tuesday praised Yates for her actions and accused Sessions of helping Trump draft the order, a claim Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) denied.
“I’m not sure if it would be a problem even if he was involved,” he said during his opening marks. “The fact of the matter is he was not involved.”
Democrats have fiercely criticized by Trump’s order and Yates’s firing, and said that any vote for Sessions is a vote to let Trump stifle dissent in his Justice Department. They used a procedural move to stall a planned vote on Sessions on Tuesday. Trump quickly replaced Yates with Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He rescinded the Yates order and said Justice will defend the executive order.
Democrats have questioned whether Sessions would stand up to Trump the way Yates did Monday when faced with seemingly unconstitutional orders. “What is so tragically apparent here is Trump is unwilling to consider the legal reasons Sally Yates stood her ground and why that position now more than ever deserves someone who will stand for the rule of law and constitutional principle,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
The committee vote, which Democrats delayed last week, follows two days of confirmation hearings in which Sessions defended his record on civil rights addressed head-on charges that he’s made racially insensitive remarks about African Americans.
As The Hill notes, civil rights groups have been pushing Democrats to reject the Alabamian who lost a confirmation fight in 1986 for a federal judgeship over those claims, and lawmakers seized the opportunity over two days of hearings to question him about his remarks as well as his record on voting rights. “I do not harbor those kinds of animosities and race-based ideas I was accused of,” Sessions said when questioned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) even broke Senate tradition and became the first sitting senator to testify against another sitting senator chosen for a Cabinet post.
Booker argued that Sessions has not proven he can uphold the responsibilities of an attorney general, namely ensuring equal rights for all Americans.
That said, Sessions’ confirmation which is now headed to the Senate, is almost assured. Sessions, who is well liked by his GOP colleagues, is assured to have the 50 votes he needs to get confirmed with Republicans holding a 52-seat majority.
via http://ift.tt/2kS21xQ Tyler Durden