U.S. Senate committees hold confirmation hearings for Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, and John Kelly, his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Sessions confirmation hearing updates and live coverage. Live coverage will resume.
Halftime Highlights
Some highlights from the morning testimony: — Mr. Sessions said allegations that he is sympathetic to groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or is otherwise racially biased are “damnably false.”
— Mr. Sessions, an early and outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, also said he wouldn’t take part in any potential further prosecution of Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s Democratic presidential opponent, citing some of his comments during the campaign.
— On whether waterboarding constitutes torture, Mr. Sessions said that at one point there was a determination that it was proper, but Congress had changed the law and now it is “absolutely improper and illegal.”
— Asked about how he would deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S., Mr. Sessions dodged the question. “Fundamentally, we need to fix this immigration system.”
Source: Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearing: Live Coverage