Trump appoints anti-LGBT Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General
President-Elect Donald Trump has chosen Senator Jeff Sessions as the next US Attorney General.
The Alabama Senator is known as one of the most conservative and anti-LGBT members of Congress and has been a vocal opponent over any attempts to bring about LGBT equality.
Senator Sessions was one of the earliest supporters of the United States’ next President.
He attacked the White House for failing to defend the Defence of Marriage Act, a move which eventually led to the legalisation of equal marriage across all 50 states.
Speaking in a Senate Judiciary Committee, he said: “It’s unacceptable.
“It cannot be justified. It was direct interference politically by the President of the United States.”
When Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was being nominated, he challenged her view that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was “unwise and unjust”.
More bizarrely, he threatened to do crack cocaine at the confirmation hearing of another Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.
Talking of his nomination, Mr Trump said Senator Session had a great legal mind and would make a great Attorney General.
“[Sessions] is a world-class legal mind and considered a truly great attorney general and U.S. attorney in the state of Alabama,” he said.
“Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”
Former Presidential candidate Ted Cruz who challenged Donald Trump for the Presidency said the appointment of Senator Sessions was “great news for all of us who revere the Constitution and the rule of law.”
It won’t be the first time the 69-year-old has faced a Senate hearing.
The chamber previous rejected his nomination from President Ronald Reagan to have him sit on the Federal Bench.
Senator Sessions joined the chamber in the 90s and would be forced to give up his seat in order to take up the position.
