Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Sessions picked for A-G post
Senator accused of racist slurs
NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump is moving ahead with filling key posts in his administration, picking Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for the job of attorney-general and Congressman Mike Pompeo as head of the CIA.
The announcements came on the heels of Trump’s decision to tap former military intelligence chief Michael Flynn as national security adviser. Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation before assuming their designated roles; Flynn would not.
There could be some hurdles for Sessions, even with Republicans in control of the chamber. When he was nominated to be a federal judge in 1986, he was dogged by racist comments he was accused of making while serving as US attorney in Alabama.
“Mr Sessions is a throwback to a shameful era, which I know both black and white Americans thought was in our past,” the late Massachusetts Democrat, Senator Edward Kennedy, said during the 1986 confirmation hearing. “It is inconceivable to me that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a US attorney, let alone a US federal judge.”
During the hearing, a former assistant US attorney, Thomas Figures, who is black, said Sessions referred to him as “boy,” and told him to be careful what he said to “white folks”. Sessions said he had never called Figures “boy,” but Kennedy produced a letter from an organisation of black lawyers that said Figures had made the allegation about Sessions to its investigators at least twice.
Sessions told the committee that he had told Figures to be careful what he said to “folks”.
Sessions later withdrew from consideration, though he went on to become state attorney-general and won election to the Senate in 1996.
Pompeo is a conservative Republican and a fierce critic of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Flynn was a critic of Obama’s military and foreign policy long before he began advising Trump on national security issues during the presidential campaign. While the position of national security adviser doesn’t require Senate confirmation, Flynn would work in the West Wing and have frequent access to the president.
Flynn, who turns 58 next month, had built a reputation as an astute intelligence professional and straight talker when he became the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency in 2012.
After retiring two years later, he made it clear he took issue with the Obama administration’s approach to global affairs and fighting Islamic State militants.
Flynn has called for Washington to work more closely with Moscow, echoing similar statements from Trump. But his warmth toward Russia has worried some national security experts.
Last year Flynn travelled to Moscow, where he joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials in a celebration of RT, a television channel funded by the Russian government.
He later explained that he had been paid for taking part in the event, but brushed aside concerns that he was aiding a Russian propaganda effort.
Trump is a foreign policy novice and his early moves on national security are being closely watched both in the US and overseas.
He’s said to be considering a range of officials with varying degrees of experience to lead the State Department and Pentagon. – ANA-AP