Democrats win big as Dianne Feinstein delays confirmation vote on Jeff Sessions
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted Tuesday to delay the confirmation of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as President Trump’s Attorney General until January 31.
The committee rules afford any member the ability to request a one-week delay. Feinstein alluded to the weekend’s Women’s March as a “very big deal” and would warrant further delay.
“Of course, I’ll honor that request,” Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said on Tuesday, adding there will be “plenty of time” next week to debate Session’s nomination.
Jeff Sessions
Sessions “must be a zealous advocate for the American people. All the American people,” Feinstein said Tuesday, citing the issues of women’s rights, abortion, equal pay, the environment and others.
“The least we can do is tell marchers we’ll be as careful as possible about who we put in place to make these decisions,” she said.
On Sunday, Sessions also turned over nearly 190 pages of questions in response to a lawmaker questionnaire, and senators and their staff need more time to review them, she said.
“This nomination is a very big deal,” Feinstein explained. “Our staff needs time to go through these answers and we need time to put them in context.”
“Once again we are being asked to evaluate a nomination of our next attorney general. He is charged with enforcing the law and upholding the protections that women have fought so hard to secure,” Feinstein said. “This nomination is critically important. This committee must have enough time to fully consider Sen. Sessions’ record to evaluate his answers to our questions and to determine what kind of attorney general he will be if confirmed.”
Sessions is expected to be confirmed. He needs only 50 votes to clear the upper chamber, and Republicans have a 52-seat majority.
Code Pink offering a racist protest against Jeff Sessions photo/ screenshot
