Senate confirms Jeff Sessions as attorney general

The American Civil Liberties Union has promised to sue the new attorney general if he violates the Constitution

Jeff Sessions meets with the Public Works Committee on February 2, 2017 in Washington DC. (Alex Wong/Getty)

The Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions as attorney general on Wednesday after a heated debate over his record on civil rights and immigration.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-47 with no Republicans siding against the Alabama senator, who is considered one of President Trump’s most divisive cabinet picks.

He will now serve as America’s top law enforcement officer despite scathing criticism from the Democratic Party. Mr Sessions was named the attorney general of Alabama in 1995, serving for two years before he entered the Senate. He’s held his current position for two decades.

Following the vote, Mr Sessions addressed his critics and called for unity amongst both parties. “Denigrating people who disagree with us, I think, is not a healthy trend for our body,” he said.

President Trump offered his congratulations to Mr Sessions on Twitter.

Accusations of racism nearly ended Mr Session’s political career in the past. The Senate committee denied him a federal judgeship in 1986 after his former colleagues claimed that he casually used the n-word and made jokes about the Ku Klux Klan. At the time, he allegedly said they were “okay, until he learned that they smoked marijuana."

At the time, he defended himself against the allegations. “I am not the Jeff Sessions my detractors have tried to create,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I am not a racist. I am not insensitive to blacks.”

The night prior to the Senate vote, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, voiced dissent against Mr Sessions’ nomination. Republicans voted to silence Ms Warren after she read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King that condemned Mr Sessions. The letter accused him of using his “awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to happen.”

Mr Sessions was one of the earliest and most prominent supporters of Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, who signed on to help the Republican candidate craft his immigration policies. After Mr Trump's election victory, the business mogul called Mr Sessions a “world-class legal mind," adding that he is “greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”

Nonetheless, as soon as Mr Trump announced his intentions to appoint Mr Sessions to attorney General, his civil rights record became the main indictment against his nomination.

Last week, a divided Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Mr Sessions as attorney general, the day after Democrats succeeded in postponing the vote. His critics have condemned his support for President Trump’s refugee policy, and have raised questions about whether he will be an independent attorney general.

The American Civil Liberties Union immediately responded to the confirmation promising to sue the new attorney general if he violates the Constitution.

Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, expressed her excitement over the Senate vote.

“I am thrilled that the Senate has voted to confirm such a qualified public servant as Jeff Sessions to be our nation’s chief law enforcement officer,” she said in a statement.

“That Democrats would try to skew Sessions’ strong civil rights record and consistent adherence to rule of law in a partisan effort to block their colleague’s nomination shows their only commitment is to blindly obstructing this administration.”