On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 11-9 vote (along party lines) voted to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be the next attorney general.
Session’s nomination now proceeds to the full Senate where it is expected he will be confirmed, given the GOP’s 52-seat majority.
Senate Democrats have been forceful and frank in opposing the nomination, but none — in this author’s opinion — as passionate and from-the-heart as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Seizing on the recent firing by Trump of acting Attorney General Sally Yates (the “Monday-night massacre”) and Trump’s travel bans on refugees and others from seven Muslim-dominated nations, but also reflecting back on Russia’s attempts to interfere in our presidential elections, Durbin — for 30 minutes — offered a “blistering critique” of the attorney general nominee calling him “the wrong person for this job.”
“I cannot picture this man, who has been described by the Trump advisers as a savant and legendary, having the will or the determination to do that, and for that reason I oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions as the attorney general of the United States,” Durbin said in his remarks.
Please watch the video below. When the full text of his remarks becomes available, this post will be updated.
Lead photo: Senator Durbin with Senator Tammy Duckworth. Courtesy: Sen. Durbin’s Office
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.