The Senate is working overtime toward confirming Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer as attorney general, reports the Associated Press. Sessions appears headed toward confirmation tonight by a nearly party-line vote. Democrats harshly criticized Sessions for being too close to Trump, too harsh on immigrants, and too weak on civil rights. “There is simply nothing in Senator Sessions’ testimony before the Judiciary Committee that gives me confidence that he would be willing to stand up to the president,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). “He has instead demonstrated only blind allegiance.”
Republicans say Sessions has demonstrated over a long career in public service — and two decades in the Senate — that he possesses integrity, honesty, and is committed to justice and the rule of law. “We all know him to be a man of deep integrity, a man of his word, and a man committed to fairness,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA). Sessions enjoys unanimous backing from fellow Republicans and cleared a procedural vote yesterday by a 52-47 margin, with West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin crossing over to back him. Last night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was given a rare rebuke for quoting Coretta Scott King, widow of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., on the Senate floor. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Warren had violated the chamber’s rules by reading a three-decade-old letter from Mrs. King that dated to Sessions’ failed judicial nomination three decades ago and “impugning the motives” of Sessions.