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| AG-Designate Jeff Sessions Nomination Thread | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 10 2017, 03:06 PM (111 Views) | |
| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:06 PM Post #1 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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....since this is the most contentious of incoming President Trump's nominations, it deserves its' own thread......quoting The Guardian.... Background --Jeff Sessions was nominated by Donald Trump to become the most senior law enforcement official in the US after being the first sitting US senator to endorse Trump for president in 2016. The 70-year-old former federal prosecutor and state attorney general has represented Alabama in the upper chamber since 1997. Sessions, a law-and-order conservative, would as attorney general be responsible for implementing the draconian criminal justice agenda on which Trump campaigned. Both men have been dismissive of bipartisan efforts to pass reforms to help reduce prisoner numbers. They have also been sharply critical of the Black Lives Matter protest movement and its campaign against deadly shootings by police. Claims of prejudice and racial insensitivity, which Sessions denies, have dogged his career. In 1986, the Senate blocked his nomination by President Ronald Reagan to a federal judgeship after hearing testimony about racist remarks he made to colleagues, as well as a failed voter-fraud prosecution that he brought against black civil rights activists. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:08 PM Post #2 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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Key points to watch for (1) Race and civil rights: Sessions is sure to come under intense questioning over his record regarding African Americans. Democratic senators on the judiciary committee are likely to ask why a man viewed as too racist for the 1980s should be approved 30 years later for the job of overseeing the enforcement of civil rights laws in the US. (2) Criminal justice reform: Sessions last year helped block a bipartisan congressional plan to reduce “mandatory minimum” prison sentences and make other changes to the federal prisons system. Senators will want to know what he and Trump intend to do about the country’s high rates of incarceration and recidivism. (3) Use of force by police: Sessions has described Black Lives Matter as “really radical” and blamed the protest movement for a spike in violent crime in some US cities. He has consistently attacked justice department investigations into troubling practices in local police departments, which the Obama administration opened in cities such as Ferguson, Missouri. Sessions may well face questions on whether too many people are killed by police. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:09 PM Post #3 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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10am - Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the most senior Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, gave a powerful opening statement in which she raised deep concerns about the prospect of Sessions serving as Donald Trump’s attorney general. Citing President-elect Trump’s campaign threat to use the Department of Justice to go after his opponent, Hillary Clinton, Feinstein told Sessions his loyalty must be “to the people and the law, not the president”. She said Sessions must assure senators that he can “dispatch himself from the president and from his record” and enforce the law “fairly, evenly, without personal bias”. “Will he be independent of the White House? Will he tell the president no when necessary?” Feinstein asked. Feinstein said that Sessions’ “extremely conservative agenda” had seen him vote against – and speak enthusiastically against – the notion that the US must not block people’s entry to the country on the basis of their religion. He voted against immigration reform and against giving some legal status to the children of undocumented immigrants, which he called a “reckless proposal for mass amnesty”. He voted against banning illegal torture, said Feinstein. He voted against a law against hate crimes, saying in 2009: “Today I’m not sure women or people with different sexual orientations face that kind of discrimination. I just don’t see it.” In a sharply critical closing section, Feinstein said: “We cannot ignore that there are deep concerns and anxieties throughout America. There is a deep fear about what a Trump administration will bring in many places and this is the context in which we should consider Senator Sessions’s record. “Communities across this country are concerned about whether they will be able to rely on the Department of Justice to protect their rights and freedoms. These freedoms are so cherished. They are what make us unique among nations.” |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:10 PM Post #4 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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10.15am - Jeff Sessions gave robust opening remarks, in which he defended his law-and-order conservatism while dismissing allegations of racism against him as “damnably false charges”. He was quickly interrupted by protesters loudly chanting: “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA” and calling Sessions a racist. Sessions said: “I abhor the Klan and what it represents, and its hateful ideology.” He denied ever condemning the activities of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as “un-American” or describing a white attorney in Alabama as a race traitor. In comments that were not included in printed remarks published before the hearing, Sessions promised that he understood the ills that racial discrimination and prejudice had inflicted on “our African American brothers and sisters”. He continued by saying he would work to protect LGBT people and women who are victims of assault and abuse. Before this, however, Sessions went on the offensive against the record of the Obama administration. Citing recent spikes in violent crime in some cities and the heroin epidemic that has afflicted several regions, Sessions painted a grim picture of a country needing rescue. “These trends cannot continue. It is a fundamental civil right to be safe in your home and your community,” he said. He accused the administration of abandoning police officers amid national criticism over their use of force. “In the last several years, law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the unacceptable actions of a few bad actors,” he said. Still, in apparent recognition of concerns about Trump’s intentions, Sessions said of the Attorney General: “He or she must be willing to tell the President ‘no’ if he overreaches. He or she cannot be a mere rubberstamp.” “I understand the absolute necessity that all my actions must fall within the bounds of the constitution and the laws of the United States,” said Sessions. “I am ready for this job.” |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:12 PM Post #5 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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10.45am – Under questioning from Senator Chuck Grassley, Sessions makes headlines by promptly promising to recuse himself from any justice department investigations of Hillary Clinton’s private email server or the Clinton Foundation, due to his past political remarks on the subject. He also says: “This country does not punish its political enemies, but this country ensures that no one is above the law.” Feinstein elicits assurances from Sessions that in spite of his personal political views, he recognizes that the US supreme court rulings allowing same-sex marriage and protecting a woman’s right to an abortion are the laws of the country. “I will follow that decision,” he says of both cases, while reiterating his view that the 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade was unconstitutional. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:12 PM Post #6 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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11.20am – Sessions, who last year voted against a measure outlawing a ban on people entering the US based on their religion, joined Trump in walking back the president-elect’s campaign pledge to bar all Muslims from coming into the country. Under questioning from Democratic senator Patrick Leahy, Sessions said: “I believe the president-elect has subsequently to that statement made clear the focus should be individuals coming from countries that have a history of terrorism.” Sessions said that while he believes that “many people do have religious views that are inimical to the public safety of the United States”, at the same time, “I have no belief, and do not support the idea, that Muslims as a religious group should be denied admission to the United States”. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:13 PM Post #7 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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12.03pm – Under questioning from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sessions avoided giving a personal view on whether waterboarding amounts to torture. But, he noted, Congress has said that it does. “It is absolutely improper and illegal to use waterboarding,” he said. “I used to teach the Geneva conventions and the laws of warfare as an army reservist,” he added. Whitehouse went on to ask whether Sessions would be prepared to prosecute “the president, his family and associates” if inquiries into Russia’s interference in the US presidential election led to charges against them being warranted. Sessions effectively said yes. “If there are laws violated, and they can be prosecuted, then of course you’d have to handle that in the appropriate way,” he said. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:14 PM Post #8 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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Key Moments Thus Far.... (1) Sessions promises that he would recuse himself from any Department of Justice investigations of Hillary Clinton due to past political comments. (2) Reversing Donald Trump’s campaign pledges, the attorney general nominee says: “This country does not punish its political enemies.” (3) Amid protests, Sessions also attacks claims against him of racism as “damnably false charges”, and pledges to protect minorities and women. (4) Sessions says he “does not support the idea” of the Muslim ban proposed by President-elect Trump during his campaign. (5) Sessions says he would be prepared to prosecute the president, his family and associates if charges against them were warranted. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 03:37 PM Post #9 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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2.12pm Proceedings were interrupted again just as Texas senator and failed Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz began his questioning of Sessions. At least two protesters chanting “Black Lives Matter” were ejected from the room. “Free speech is a wonderful thing,” Cruz said after proceedings continued. Cruz then continued an extended diatribe accusing outgoing president Barack Obama and former attorney general Eric Holder of “politicizing” the justice department. “I take today as a moment of celebration,” Cruz said of Sessions’s nomination. “The reason I am so enthusiastically supporting your nomination is that I have every confidence you will follow the law faithfully.” Cruz then asked a series of soft ball questions on how Sessions would “restore integrity” to the department. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 06:18 PM Post #10 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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3.06pm – Following some dense legal discussions, Leahy woke up those drifting off by raising the subject of Trump’s notorious remark, in a leaked 2005 recording, that as a celebrity he was free to “grab [women] by the pussy”. During the campaign, Sessions appeared to cast doubt on whether this would constitute sexual assault. Leahy on Tuesday gave him another chance. “Is grabbing a woman by her genitals without her consent sexual assault?” Leahy asked. Sessions replied: “Clearly, it would be.” Asked whether he would or could prosecute a president found to have done this, Sessions said: “The president is subject to certain lawful restrictions, and they would be required to be applied by the appropriate law enforcement official if appropriate, yes.” Leahy also asked Sessions to assure senators that he would not permit the NSA to resume the mass collection of Americans’ electronic communications in spite of new laws passed following the disclosures in documents released by Edward Snowden. “I do not believe that the statute can be disregarded and it should be followed,” Sessions said. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 06:19 PM Post #11 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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4.05pm - No real surprise, but Sessions outlined the standard Republican take on the second amendment of the US constitution, which he said he shared. “I do believe the second amendment is a personal right,” said Sessions. “It’s a historic right of the American people, and the constitution protects it and explicitly states it. It’s just as much part of the constitution as the other great rights and liberties that we value.” Sessions also said that American citizens could be detained indefinitely without charge in the US during a time of war. “These individuals would have to be proven to be connected to a designated enemy of the United States,” he said. Controversial Obama-era laws appearing to codify the government’s authority to do this have come under legal challenge. |
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| Webster | Jan 10 2017, 07:34 PM Post #12 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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4.50pm: Sessions declined to say whether or not he agreed with Trump’s false claim that Trump would have won the presidential election’s popular vote in addition to the electoral college “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. Under pointed questioning from Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, Sessions said: “I do believe we regularly have fraudulent activity happen during election cycles.” Authoritative studies have concluded that voter fraud is, in fact, close to nonexistent. Franken, who earlier noted that Sessions had exaggerated the extent to which he was involved in civil rights prosecutions, went on the attack against the Alabama senator’s support for the Supreme Court’s dismantling of a central component of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Sessions called “good news for the South”. |
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| Webster | Jan 11 2017, 02:52 AM Post #13 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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Conservative Review: Ted Cruz Reveals Why Dems' Are Terrified Of AG-Designate Jeff Sessions![]()
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| Webster | Jan 11 2017, 04:59 PM Post #14 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) New Jersey senator Cory Booker is testifying against Alabama senator Jeff Sessions in Sessions’ attorney general confirmation hearings. It’s unusual – precedents don’t readily come to mind – for a senator to testify against a colleague at such hearings. Booker says Sessions hasn’t shown he’s committed to equal rights: --Booker: Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to 'civil rights, equal rights, and justice for all of our citizens.' (Byron York, Washington Examiner - 11 Jan. 2017) --Booker: Indeed, at times Sessions has demonstrated a hostility to civil rights, equal rights, and justice. (Byron York, Washington Examiner - 11 Jan. 2017) |
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| Webster | Jan 11 2017, 05:06 PM Post #15 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Representative John Lewis, the civil rights leader and original Freedom Rider, adds his testimony to the case against Sessions for attorney general... --@repjohnlewis on Sessions: "We need someone as attorney general who's going to look out for all of us, not just for some of us." (ABC News Politics, 11 Jan. 2017) |
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