President-elect Trump has decided he wants Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be his attorney general in his new administration, the transition team confirmed Friday morning.
Sessions met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York on Thursday and Trump released a glowing statement about the meeting afterward.
According to Bloomberg, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was seriously considered for the role as well but he was informed on Thursday night that Trump was going to go with Sessions.
Sessions was Trump’s first, and for a long time only, supporter in the Senate. He was one of the few lawmakers to actively defend Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigration.
The four-term senator is an immigration hardliner and a staunch conservative, having opposed all of President Obama’s Supreme Court picks and attempts to reform the criminal justice system. He has also opposed efforts to wind down the war on drugs, and to legalize marijuana, according to Bloomberg’s report.
It’s not the first time Sessions has been picked for a federal role. Under President Reagan, Sessions was chosen to be a federal judge but was never confirmed for the role due to statements he made about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups.
According to Bloomberg, Sessions referred to the NAACP as “communist inspired” and “un-American organizations with anti-traditional American values.”
