Sen. Joe Manchin accused his fellow Democrats, especially centrist Democrats keeping their powder dry on a number of President-elect Trump’s nominees, of “playing politics” with Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to be attorney general.
The West Virginia Democrat, who was often at odds with the Obama administration’s environmental regulations, especially those affecting the coal industry, lamented his lonely role as the sole Democrat so far to openly state his public support for Sessions.
“Am I the only one voting for Jeff?” he asked in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “I believe simply this: What I know of Jeff Sessions is that he’s a good man. I’ve known him for six years. I’ve never seen any indication of any bigotry or any type of racism. If there would have been, I wouldn’t vote for him.”
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and throughout the caucus have questioned Sessions’ support for voting rights and civil rights.
After winning a nationwide election, Manchin said, presidents and governors should have the right to put together their Cabinets and executive team as long the nominees go through background checks and provide their financial disclosures.
“If that’s clean, I would give the executive a chance to put their government together,” he said. “I’ve been a governor. I asked the state senate for the same thing: Judge me on the team I put [together] and how we perform,” he said.
“Whether you know them or like them or not, if they are clean, they have no background to where it would be detrimental to the job they are going to do, give them a chance and see if they are going to work,” he said. “And that’s what I would recommend to my own colleagues – quit playing politics with it.”
Manchin also defended Sessions’ against charges of racism that were first made 30 years ago in a Senate hearing that denied the Alabama Republican a federal judgeship.
Several Senate Democrats from states Trump won are feeling the pressure to support his Cabinet nominations and early agenda items or risk alienating some of the very voters they need to win re-election in 2018.
Asked this week by the Washington Examiner, how they will vote on Sessions’ nomination, several of these Democrats said they were either still deciding or declined to indicate which way they were leaning.
All but two Senate Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted in favor of former Attorney General Eric Holder’s nomination to the same post in 2009, with many citing deference for a new president’s ability to form his Cabinet. Twenty-one Republicans voted against Holder when his nomination came to the Senate floor.
But even though several Senate Democrats spent years working alongside Sessions, with some sponsoring legislation with him, none but Manchin so far has publicly signaled they would back him.
Two of the Senate Democrats from states Trump won that the Washington Examiner spoke to about their consideration of Sessions’ nomination said Republicans’ unanimous support for Holder in 2009 would play no role in their decision on Sessions. The other two declined to comment.
Senate Republicans are planning to vote for Sessions as a bloc both in committee and when the nomination reaches the floor for a full vote. That support from his GOP colleagues will all but guarantee an easy approval of his nomination. The Judiciary Committee will vote Jan. 24 on the Sessions nomination.
Democrats from states that went for Trump are feeling the squeeze.
“I haven’t made up my mind on Sessions yet,” Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., told the Washington Examiner Tuesday evening. “We’ll just do what we think is right.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, a state that Trump won by a thin margin of 13,107 votes out of the nearly 4.8 million cast, said she is meeting with Sessions this week and would publicly announce her position afterward.
“There are a lot of factors — I couldn’t say one issue. There will be a whole bunch of issues factoring into it,” she said
Stabenow, who is considered a reliable Democrat but who at times has voted against her party on environmental and defense issues, is up for re-election in 2018 for her fourth term and so far no Republican has come forward to challenge her.
Last week, Stabenow sent a mass letter to constituents who had contacted her expressing concerns about Sessions. In it, she said she is “deeply concerned about his nomination.”
“As you know, the Senate is charged by the Constitution with an ‘advice and consent’ role in the appointment process,” she wrote. “I take my constitutional responsibility very seriously, as do my colleagues.”
She went on to say that she “fully expects” her colleagues on the Judiciary Committee to “vigorously question his background, statements and qualifications.”
Tester, who is up for re-election in 2018 in a state Trump won with nearly 56 percent of the vote, is under far more pressure on Sessions. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., Trump’s choice to head the Interior Department, was eyeing a run against Tester before Trump tapped him for the Interior post.
Zinke could still jump into a race, although he would only have served as Interior secretary for a short time before he would have to decide.
Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who are up for re-election in 2018, both declined to indicate how they will vote on Sessions’ nomination or whether Sessions’ support for Holder in 2009 would play a role.
Indiana and Missouri voted overwhelmingly for Trump, who captured 57 percent and 56 percent of the vote, respectively, in those states.
Manchin, who was among those Trump considered for Energy secretary, will introduce Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was picked for the post, tomorrow at his Senate confirmation hearing.
