<p>Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions finally earned Senate approval Wednesday evening after more than 30 hours of debate. ;</p>
<p><a href="https://punchingbagpost.com/trump-fires-acting-attorney-general-sally-yates-for-refusing-to-back-refugee-policy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>As I wrote last Friday</strong></a>, Trump&rsquo;s decision to fire former acting AG Sally Yates after she refused to defend his travel ban threw a wrench into the process &#8211; and effectively transformed the confirmation vote into a referendum on Trump&rsquo;s immigration policies. ;</p>
<p>Wednesday&#8217;s grueling debate came to a head when Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) read an excerpt from a 1986 letter in which the late wife of Martin Luther King Jr. portrayed Sessions as racist.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I guess because he&rsquo;s from Alabama, they think every white male is a racist, or at least might be,&rdquo; argued Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). &ldquo;I just think that&rsquo;s wrong, it&rsquo;s obnoxious and it&rsquo;s something that we ought all decry.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>To his credit, the 70-year-old senator did his best to stay away from personal insults. &ldquo;We need latitude in our relationships,&rdquo; said Sessions as he read his resignation letter to his colleagues. &ldquo;Denigrating people who disagree with us is not a healthy trend for our body.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Republicans were united in their support for Sessions, with every single one of them voting to confirm his position in Trump&rsquo;s Cabinet. The final vote was 52-47, with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin as the only Democrat to support Sessions. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s honest. He&rsquo;s fair. He&rsquo;s been a friend to many of us, on both sides of the aisle,&rdquo; said Mitch McConnell (R-KY). &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been tough to watch all this good man has been put through in recent weeks.&rdquo;  ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;He is a thoroughly decent and honorable member of the United States Senate and he will do an outstanding job I believe in restoring the reputation of the Department of Justice,&rdquo; said Texas Senator John Cornyn. ;</p>
<p>Unlike Sec. of State Rex Tillerson and Def. Sec. James Mattis, Sessions hasn&rsquo;t disagreed with Trump on a single issue. His undeniable loyalty to President Trump, which began during the early days of the billionaire&rsquo;s campaign, is a major concern for Democrats.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Democrats had repeatedly contended that Sessions is too close to Trump, too harsh on immigrants, and weak on civil rights for minorities, immigrants, gay people, and women,&rdquo; reports <em>Fox News. ;</em></p>
<p>The Dems also worry that Sessions doesn&#8217;t have the nerve to stand up to Trump. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m worried he will not be an independent voice from the president as the job requires, and will instead defend all pieces of the president&rsquo;s agenda without question &ndash; whether constitutional or not.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> This last comment is amazingand appalling, considering how Attorney General Lynch folded under pressure when it came to Hillary&#8217;s emails. She completely avoided any involvement in the face of devastating damage to the country.</p>