More senior Trump nominees tapped including Sessions for U.S. Atty. General
After days of what some called chaos in the Trump camp revealing a deep lack of understanding about the steps necessary to move from one presidential administration to the next, the transition team now seems to be making strides. Three more people were officially named for leadership positions Friday. FSRN’s Nell Abram has more.
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition office announced its picks for nominees to three high-ranking positions Friday: long time Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo for CIA chief, and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as presidential assistant for National Security Affairs.
The latter used to lead the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, but reportedly resigned under pressure in 2014.
Pompeo is a member of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, vocal opponent of the nuclear deal with Iran and helped to lead the congressional investigation into the Benghazi incident.
Senator Sessions is known for his hardline stance against immigration and was famously denied a job as federal judge due to concerns about racial prejudice. If confirmed, he will, among other things, be responsible for enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws.
Friday’s announcement comes on the heels of the controversial appointment of Former Breitbart News executive Stephen Bannon as White House chief adviser and strategist.
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is among more than 160 Democratic members of Congress calling for Trump to rescind Bannon’s appointment.
“I have been in politics for five decades, and I have not seen anything like what we are seeing today in America. The man who lost the popular vote by two million votes is now the president-elect,” Senator Reid said in a speech on the chamber floor Tuesday entering into the record a package of accounts of hate crimes from around the nation and shared anecdotes from people close to him. “We have a responsibility to be the voice of the millions of Americans sitting at home afraid that they are not welcome anymore in Donald Trump’s America. We have a responsibility to prevent Trump’s bullying, aggressive behavior from becoming normalized in the eyes of Americans – especially the millions of young people who are watching and wondering, for example, if sexual assault is now a laughing matter. We have a responsibility to say that it is not normal for the KKK – the Ku Klux Klan – to celebrate the election of a president they view as their champion with a victory parade.”
