WASHINGTON _ Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, has been tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General, multiple news outlets reported Friday.
Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump during the presidential primaries and he shares Trump's fierce opposition to immigration reform. He has also been a part of his transition team.
But being confirmed is no sure bet. President Ronald Reagan nominated Sessions to be a federal district court judge in 1986, but the Judiciary Committee rejected the nomination. Among Democrats voting against Sessions were then-Delaware Sen. Joseph E. Biden, Jr. and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who's now Sessions' colleague on the Judiciary Committee.
Critics accused Sessions of "gross insensitivity" on racial issues. Justice Department lawyers said he called the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union "communist-inspired" and claimed they tried to "force civil rights down the throats of people." Sessions said his words were misrepresented.
