US Senate approves Jeff Sessions as attorney general

NEW YORK

After weeks of wrangling, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Jeff Sessions as the country’s next attorney general.

The narrowly Republican-led Senate voted 52-47 for President Donald Trump's pick to be the nation’s top lawyer.

Sessions won unanimous backing from Republicans and the support of one Democrat, Joe Manchin.

The attorney general-designate has had a long public service career that includes two decades as a senator for Alabama.

Former vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, who is also a senator, said Sessions' record "raises doubts about whether he can be a champion for those who need this office most.

"Any attorney general must be able to stand firm for the rule of law even against the powerful executive that nominated him or her," Kaine said. "In this administration I believe that independence is even more necessary," he added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised Sessions as honest, fair and "a friend to many of us, on both sides of the aisle.

"This is a well-qualified colleague with a deep reverence for the law. He believes strongly in the equal application of it to everyone."

In 1986, Sessions' nomination to be a federal judge in the Ronald Reagan administration was rejected by a Senate committee because of his "racial insensitivity", tying back to allegations he sympathized with the terrorist KKK group and called civil rights groups such as the NAACP "un-American".

Sessions categorically denied the allegations and said he has never harbored any race-related ill will. “I deeply understand the history of civil rights ... and the horrendous impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters,” he said Jan. 10 during confirmation hearings.

Late Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was silenced by Republicans as she read a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who slammed Sessions for exploiting “the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens” while serving as a U.S. attorney in Alabama.

Sessions was also pressed on Trump's lewd comments on women in 2005 that were exposed during the closing stages of a bitter presidential race last year.

Asked whether "grabbing a woman by her genitals without her consent" was "sexual assault", Sessions said: “Clearly”.

Trump has never accepted the accusations of sexual assault against him, vowing to sue his detractors once in office.

Sessions has also promised to not get entangled in any politically charged lawsuit against former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton regarding her use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State in 2009-2013.

Sessions will assume office a week after acting Attorney General Sally Yates was removed by Trump following her refusal to defend his executive order to halt the U.S.’s refugee program and ban nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.