Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he did not anticipate the vicious floor fight over his nomination, which spurred a battle between Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and GOP leaders who used a Senate rule to prevent her from disparaging Sessions on the Senate floor.
“I’m disappointed in some of the debate, of course,” Sessions said.
Democrats voted in near unanimous opposition to Sessions, who was confirmed by the GOP-led Senate on Wednesday night. But during the debate, Democrats regurgitated old accusations that Sessions harbored racist views and worked to prevent blacks from voting when he served as a U.S. attorney in Alabama.
Warren was blocked from speaking about the Sessions nomination by the GOP majority after she tried to read a 1986 letter authored by Coretta Scott King. The letter accused Sessions of using his role to “intimidate and chill” the state’s black vote.
Sessions called the contentious fight over his nomination “the least of my worries at this point,” and said he is focused on his new job as top law enforcement official.
Sessions said his confirmation to attorney general “gives even additional meaning to the word irony,” after he was rejected by Senate Democrats 31 years ago when he sought confirmation to become a federal judge for Alabama’s Southern District.
After Democrats defeated his confirmation in 1986, Sessions won the U.S. Senate seat and served two decades that culminated in winning the top spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee that rejected him three decades ago. A staunch supporter of President Trump since the start of his campaign, he was nominated days after Trump won the election.
“My determination is to do the job as best I can, given the serious charge,” Sessions said. “I’ll do my best.”
