After days of speculation, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made it official by naming Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions his Attorney General.
Sessions had been on the short list for Secretary of Defense, beat out other contenders for the position, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Sessions has had a long legal career, working as a prosecutor and currently serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Alabama Senator has long been a strong opponent of immigration reform but has also worked across the aisle to cut mandatory prison sentences.
Sessions was one of the first Senators to openly endorse Mr. Trump and even appeared on the campaign trail with him during the primary season. Unsurprisingly liberals will likely oppose Sessions’ nomination, claiming he has a “controversial past”:
In the 1980s, Sessions was considered for a Ronald Reagan-appointed federal district judgeship in Alabama, but was blocked by the Senate after a black former deputy, Thomas Figures, accused him of making racially insensitive statements. Figures said that Sessions had once warned him to be careful about what he said to “white folks.”
Sessions’ loyalty to Trump, as well as his work advising the president-elect on illegal immigration, likely helped his case for Attorney General. Unlike other candidates, such as Senator Ted Cruz, Sessions has been a vocal supporter of Mr. Trump from the beginning and will continue to be so for the next several years.
H/T: NBC News
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