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Jeff Sessions Won’t Be Spared: Elizabeth Warren Warns

By Sounak Mukhopadhyay
Published on: 18:28 PST, Feb 8, 2017

Jeff Sessions has been confirmed as the new Attorney General of the United States. President Donald Trump’s choice for the top post faced immediate criticism from Democrats. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is one of the prominent Democrats to oppose the decision, has now issued a warning against the newly-appointed head of the U.S. Department of Justice. She said Sessions would face strong opposition if he tried to make the department work on a racial level.

Senator Warren was earlier stopped in the Senate from reading out a letter by Coretta Scott King. In the 1986 letter, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. expressed her “sincere opposition” to Sessions’ confirmation as the District Judge. “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge,” she wrote. Warren was stopped from reading out the rest of the letter.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (L) talks to a reporter as he heads for the Senate chamber to vote to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to be the next U.S. Attorney General at the U.S. Capitol February 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. [Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

During the debate about the Jeff Sessions nomination, Warren was silenced under Rule 19, which prohibits senators from impugning one another. The chamber regulation is rarely used, but it is still a valid rule. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Warren was rightly silenced. “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” he said. Now that Sessions’ nomination has been confirmed, Warren’s efforts to stop it went in vain.

Warren, known to be the harshest critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, refuses to be silenced. Thanks to social media, she can now express herself as openly as she wants to. And, as she puts it, there is no Rule 19 to stop her from doing so. Soon after Sessions’ nomination was confirmed, she started expressing herself on Twitter. She said she was “deeply disappointed” that the nomination was confirmed. Sessions’ records do not show “he will faithfully and fairly enforce the law,” she wrote.

Jeff Sessions is the new Attorney General. But, it was only last week when the previous Attorney General Sally Yates was fired by Trump after she refused to follow his travel ban, the New York Times reported. She said she was not convinced if it was legal for Trump to ban people from entering the United States. The immigration ban has since been halted by a federal judge. One of the strongest arguments against Sessions’ nomination for the top post was his closeness to the U.S. president.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee member Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) listens to testimony from Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Secretary of Education, during her confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill January 17, 2017 in Washington, DC. [Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

Democrats believe Trump might use Sessions’ position to legitimize his ways of doing things. Senator Warren has warned Sessions against turning a blind eye, if Trump violates the Constitution or breaks the law.

Jeff Sessions was also warned against making “even the tiniest attempt to bring his racism, sexism, and bigotry” into the Justice Department. Warren said Democrats would not keep quiet if such things happened. She also warned that the senators who voted in favor of Sessions’ confirmation.

This means Warren is going to raise her voice against Joe Manchin. The senator from West Virginia was the only Democrat to vote for Sessions.

[Featured image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

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