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| Senate holds confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet choices (WATCH LIVE) | Senate holds confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet choices (WATCH LIVE) |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is the first of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks to face the Senate confirmation process for the president-elect’s team. | Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is the first of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks to face the Senate confirmation process for the president-elect’s team. |
| While Trump himself will take the oath of office on January 20, the transition team has fast-tracked the confirmation hearings. Many of his Cabinet choices have been shrouded in controversy as some are from wealthy business backgrounds and have complex financial histories. | While Trump himself will take the oath of office on January 20, the transition team has fast-tracked the confirmation hearings. Many of his Cabinet choices have been shrouded in controversy as some are from wealthy business backgrounds and have complex financial histories. |
| “Senator Sessions’ record is a life of public service,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the opening of Session’s nomination hearing for Attorney General on Tuesday. | “Senator Sessions’ record is a life of public service,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the opening of Session’s nomination hearing for Attorney General on Tuesday. |
| Sessions has, however, been subject to a number of controversies regarding his comments about race. | |
| At a 1986 confirmation for a federal judgeship, a black jurist testified that Sessions had called the Ku Klux Klan “okay until I found out they smoked pot.” | |
| Sessions later said the comment was made in jest and apologized for it, saying he considered the Klan “a force for hatred and bigotry.” | |
| The start of Tuesday’s confirmation hearing was interrupted by protesters in KKK costumes. | |
| Members of Code Pink wearing Lady Liberty outfits also protested the hearing with signs reading 'End Racism, Stop Sessions' and 'Hate Sessions.' | |
| Ranking Member, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, California) critical of Sessions said he voted for water boarding and voted against hate crimes law. | |
| Feinstein said Sessions said at the time of the vote about the hate crimes law ‘today I am not sure women or people with different sexual orientation faced that kind of discrimination,' quoted Feinstein. | |
| She added “Hate crimes are happening, the Dept. of Justice must see it.” | |
| Just before Sessions began testimony he was interrupted by several protesters, shouting ‘No KKK’; three people were escorted from the hearing. | |
| “You know who I am, you know what I believe…and can be trusted to do what I say what I will do,”said Senator Jeff Sessions (R, Alabama) in his opening statement. | |
| Sessions said in his 14 years with the Department Justice, he oversaw prosecutions in drugs cases, violent crimes, a series of public corruption cases, and important civil rights cases. |