Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee already appear split on whether Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to attorney general, which is expected to win confirmaton, will sail through without any controversy or hit a few bumps along the way.
Within an hour of President-elect Trump’s decision to tap the Alabama Republican to head the Justice Department, a number of GOP senators, including Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, applauded the move.
Grassley expressed confidence that Sessions would win committee approval and pointed to his background as a former U.S. attorney who “knows the Justice Department” and his work “across the aisle” on major legislation.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in a statement called Sessions an “exemplary” senator who would make an “exceptional” attorney general.
“Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination as attorney general is great news for all of us who revere the Constitution and the rule of law,” said Cruz, whose name also circulated as a possible contender for the post, as well as a candidate to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.
“I have been honored to work with Sen. Sessions on many of our nation’s most important issues over the last four years,” Cruz, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said. “Sen. Sessions has had an extraordinary career in government and law enforcement.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an influential voice on the panel, called Sessions “a fine, decent man and principled conservative.”
“I’ve known him for more than 20 years,” Graham said. “He has the experience and ability to serve as attorney general of the United States. He was an early supporter of Donald Trump in the Senate and he has earned the right to serve President-Elect Trump and our nation at the highest level.”
Republicans hold a majority of seats on the Judiciary Committee, so they could easily approve Sessions’ nomination without Democratic votes.
Democrats, however, signaled that they won’t give Sessions a pass and expect to grill him as they would any nominee with a conservative reputation.
“I know Senator Sessions and we work out in the gym, but the fact that he is a senator does not absolve him from answering tough questions in the confirmation process,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who will lead Senate Democrats next year. “Given some of his past statements and his staunch opposition to immigration reform, I am very concerned about what he would do with the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice and want to hear what he has to say.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member of the judiciary panel, said the attorney general must be prepared to tell the president “no.”
“The Justice Department has the awesome responsibility of upholding the country’s laws and protecting Americans, and the attorney general sets the tone for the entire agency. That’s why this position is so important and deserves such intense scrutiny,” Feinstein said.
“The attorney general should be above the political fray — our laws absolutely must apply equally to all Americans if we’re to have confidence in them,” she added, noting that the Justice Department oversees immigration judges weighing cases for immigration asylum and what interrogation techniques are permissible.
“Finally, the attorney general is the lawyer for the people, not the president. His or her primary loyalty must be to the Constitution and the rule of law — and sometimes that means telling the president ‘no.'”
Although Sessions often takes far-right positions on immigration that upset his Democratic colleagues and believes that waterboarding shouldn’t be considered torture, he is a respected member of the Senate and his confirmation is all but assured after Republican senators retained the majority.
Democrats changed the filibuster rules in 2013 to allow confirmation of a president’s nominations by a simple majority vote for all but Supreme Court picks.
But Democrats will undoubtedly dig into Sessions’ past, including the racist allegations that cost him a Senate confirmation for a federal judgeship in the 1980s.
Sessions has the ultimate redemption story. After his failed nomination, he won a Senate campaign and was seated alongside the very Democratic senators who helped sink his judgeship, including then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who also sits on the judiciary panel that will hold confirmation hearings for Sessions, was far more circumspect about the Sessions nomination.
“Although a respected colleague, Sen. Sessions deserves and no doubt expects the same exacting, serious scrutiny that any other attorney general nominee would receive,” he said.
Blumenthal, a former state attorney general, said the role as the nation’s highest law enforcer has control over a “panoply of powers — over individual rights and liberties, national security, criminal justice, environment and many others.”
“Seeking a public trust of profound importance, an appointee should have unquestionable integrity and ability, an unshakable respect for the Constitution and a record of professional and ethical excellence,” he said. “Sen. Sessions will be held to his high standard. I’m sure he expects no less.”
