Sen. Franken Raises Concerns Over Trump's AG Nominee Sessions
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – There were some tense moments Wednesday morning at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
The committee voted along party lines to approve the President's nominee for Attorney General, Sen. Jeff Sessions.
Before the vote, however, U.S. Sen. Al Franken spent a lot of time talking about his concerns about Sessions.
"President Trump lost the popular vote to the tune of 2.86 million votes. That's a fact. That's not an alternative fact, that's a fact. So I asked Sen. Sessions at the time, 'Do you agree with the President Elect that millions of fraudulent votes had been cast?' And he responded, 'I don't know what the President Elect meant or what he was thinking when he made that comment or what facts he may have had to justify his statement,'" Franken said at the hearing. "Then I asked him if he had talked to the president-elect about the issue and he said, 'I have not talked to him about that in any depth."
Franken and Sen. Amy Klobuchar were among the nine Democrats who voted against Sessions. But 11 Republicans voted for him, so Sessions was approved by the committee.
The full Senate is scheduled to vote on several of President Trump's nominees, including former EXXON CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and Sessions as Attorney General.
Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to stall a vote on Tillerson's confirmation.
If approved, both men will hold positions on President Trump's national security team.