President-elect Trump’s transition team praised the “phenomenal record” of Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s most influential allies, after the Alabama Republican and rumored Cabinet contender traveled to Manhattan on Wednesday to meet with the president-elect.
“While nothing has been finalized and he is still talking with others as he forms his cabinet, the President-elect has been unbelievably impressed with Senator Sessions and his phenomenal record as Alabama’s Attorney General and U.S. Attorney,” the transition team said in a statement Thursday. “It is no wonder the people of Alabama re-elected him without opposition.”
Sessions’ name has been floated in connection with a number of Cabinet positions, including attorney general.
He was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic elected officials to endorse Trump during the Republican primary. Two senior aides have left his Senate office to work for Trump: Stephen Miller, the former Sessions communications director who joined Trump’s campaign in January, and Rick Dearborn, the former Sessions chief of staff who is now executive director of the transition team.
Trump has yet to unveil any of his appointments for Cabinet posts.
To date, he has announced Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, as his White House chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, former CEO of the Trump campaign and head of Breitbart News, as his chief strategist.
The public focus on Sessions’ tenure as Alabama attorney general, a job he held from 1995 to 1997, is the Trump team’s first official signal of the direction it might take when it comes to filling one of the highest-profile positions in the administration.
