More about Trump's team
- Senate confirms Alex Acosta as Trump's secretary of labor
- Lawmakers say Flynn did not inform U.S. government about payments from Turkey, Russia
- Senate confirms Sonny Perdue as agriculture secretary
- Gorsuch sworn into Supreme Court, restores conservative tilt
- Senate confirms Trump pick Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court
- Senate Republicans invoke 'nuclear option' to overcome Democrats' filibuster of Supreme Court nominee
- Trump removes Bannon from National Security Council
- U.S. defense chief worries about 'reckless' North Korea actions
- U.S. defense chief worries about 'reckless' North Korea actions
- Michael Flynn in talks with Congress, wary of prosecution
- Top aide to President Donald Trump leaves administration
- David Friedman sworn in as Trump's ambassador to Israel
- Ivanka Trump to become official White House employee
- Zinke: Border wall 'complex,' faces geographic challenges
- Kushner, taking new White House role, faces rare scrutiny
- In Trump's White House drama, Priebus is favorite target
- Ivanka Trump, Education Secretary DeVos promote STEM careers
- Attorney General: Sanctuary cities are risking federal money
- Netanyahu welcomes new U.S. ambassador 'to Jerusalem'
- Ivanka Trump to attend women's economic summit in Berlin
- Ex-CIA chief: Flynn's firm discussed removing cleric from U.S.
- Trump son-in-law's ties to Israel raise questions of bias
- Gorsuch hearings show him as careful, folksy, testy at times
- Trump SEC pick assures that his Wall St. work not problem
- AP Exclusive: U.S. probes banking of ex-Trump campaign chief
- Supreme Court nominee unscathed facing last day of hearings
- Lawmakers want details on Flynn's foreign contacts, payments
- High court nominee to face daylong questioning in Senate
- Tillerson to skip meeting of NATO foreign ministers
- High court nominee: I'll be unbiased or 'hang up the robe'
- First daughter Ivanka Trump gets West Wing office
- White House tries to distance Trump from campaign aides
- Senate hearings get underway on Trump Supreme Court pick
- Report: Trump adviser's husband picked for Justice post
- Trump's high court pick is harsh critic of assisted suicide
- Documents detail Flynn payments from Russian interests
- Senate votes to approve Trump's picks for key security posts
- Democrats say Trump's pick for trade post needs waiver
- Senate confirms Trump pick to head Medicare and Medicaid
- Key members of Trump's circle under scrutiny for Russia ties
- DeVos promotes school choice, local control
- Tillerson heads to Asia with North Korea tensions high
- Conway suggests surveillance of Trump went beyond phones
- Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a rising star in Trump's orbit
- Trump's choice for FDA has ties to Wall Street, drug makers
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeks resignations of 46 U.S. attorneys
- Acosta headed for questions on sex offender case at hearing
- White House: Trump unaware of Flynn's foreign agent work
- HUD could face steep cuts, but Carson says numbers early
- EPA chief: Carbon dioxide not primary cause of warming
- AP Source: Huntsman offered job of ambassador to Russia
- General says no bad decisions in Yemen raid, probe is over
- Former Trump security adviser Flynn admits Turkey lobbying
- Confirmation for Justice's No. 2 job occurs amid controversy
- Top Trump security adviser faces questions in rare hearing
- Ben Carson compares slavery to immigration to America
- DHS chief: Agency may separate parents, children at border
- Vice President Mike Pence jokes with 'enemy of the people' at Gridiron Dinner
- Six weeks later, senators question delay on agriculture pick
- Officials: Tillerson eyes State Department budget cut over 3 years
- Pence used a private email account to conduct state business
- New Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ponies up to work at first day in office
- Sessions recuses himself from investigation into Russia's election meddling
- Senate confirms billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary
- Sessions: More violence around pot than 'one would think'
- Pence to address politically potent Republican Jewish group
- State Department news briefings to resume in early March
- Sessions: U.S. to continue use of privately run prisons
- Trump pick as security adviser is independent-minded
- Trump sends top aides to Mexico amid deep strains with U.S.
- Scott Pruitt confirmed by Senate to serve as EPA administrator
- Harward turns Trump down for national security adviser job
- Trump names Acosta as new choice to become labor secretary
- Senate hearings for Supreme Court pick to begin March 20
- Trump's pick for Israel ambassador faces rocky confirmation
- Senate to confirm Trump budget chief
- Andrew Puzder is withdrawing as Trump's nominee for labor secretary
- Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon on track to lead Small Business Administration
- Four GOP senators on the fence over Puzder for labor secretary
- National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns amid Russia controversy
- Senate confirms former banker Mnuchin as Treasury secretary
- Trump 'evaluating the situation' involving Flynn, Russia
- Gorsuch returns 68-page questionnaire to Senate
- Gorsuch returns 68-page questionnaire to Senate
- Senate confirms Trump's health secretary
- Senate confirms Jeff Sessions to be attorney general
- Sen. Sessions on track for confirmations as attorney general
- DeVos ekes out confirmation win as Pence casts historic vote
- Senate set to confirm education secretary by narrow margin
- Vice President Mike Pence says nominee Neil Gorsuch will join Supreme Court 'one way or the other'
- DeVos clears Senate hurdle toward becoming education secretary
- Seasoned spymaster named deputy CIA director
- Pelosi calls top Trump security adviser 'white supremacist'
- GOP senators move Trump EPA pick ahead as Dems boycott vote
- Little heard in public, Bannon is quiet power in Oval Office
- 2 Republican senators won't support DeVos nomination
- Trump's national security adviser puts Iran 'on notice'
- Senate confirms Rex Tillerson as secretary of state
- GOP pushes 2 top Cabinet picks through to full Senate
- Trump's pick to head VA rejects radical change to fix agency
- Union-backed Ronald Vitiello named to lead Border Patrol
- President Donald Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch to U.S. Supreme Court [video]
- Elaine Chao sworn in as transportation secretary
- Education nomination advances to full Senate
- DeVos may have used official's remarks without attribution
- GOP pushing Price, Sessions, DeVos a step toward Senate OK
- Labor secretary nominee's company outsourced jobs
- Amid criticism, Comey remaining as FBI director under Trump
- Former intelligence officer picked to lead Navy
- Senate committees approve several of Trump's Cabinet choices
- South Carolina Gov. Haley resigns to become U.S. ambassador to U.N.
- Former congressman Mike Pompeo sworn in as CIA director
- Senate panel narrowly backs Rex Tillerson for top diplomatic post
- Senate confirms Trump's picks for defense, homeland security
- Rick Perry says he regrets call to eliminate Energy Department
- Trump picks former Georgia governor as agriculture secretary
- Senate panel decisively approves James Mattis for defense secretary
- Pointed questions for Trump's pick for health secretary [video]
- Trump pick DeVos pledges not to undo public education, pushes choice [video]
- Pointed questions await Trump's pick for health secretary
- In Rep. Tom Price's district, what happens after Obamacare repeal?
- Education secretary pick DeVos defends school choice during confirmation hearing
- Tennessee scientists urge Corker, Alexander to oppose Trump's EPA pick
- CIA nominee Mike Pompeo agrees Russia tried to interfere in election
- Top Trump aide in frequent contact with Russia's ambassador
- Trump's Pentagon pick cruises toward likely confirmation
- Trump's Pentagon pick receives strong support in first vote
- Black lawmakers say Sen. Jeff Sessions unfit to be attorney general
- Trump's pick for top diplomat takes tough line on Moscow
- I'd stand up to Trump as attorney general, Sessions tells senators
- Trump son-in-law Kushner to take senior White House role
- Haslam backs Trump's pick for U.S. Education Secretary
- Trump selects former Sen. Coats for top intelligence post
- Trump to name Nashville's Bill Hagerty ambassador to Japan
- Trump expected to name lawyer Robert Lighthizer as top trade rep
- Trump names Bush-era veteran and policy newcomer to posts
- Trumps pick for ambassador to Israel sparks hot debate
- Sen. Corker says he is 'more than reassured' about Tillerson's views on Russia
- Trump picks Florida Panthers owner as Army secretary
- Trump's pick for budget director has urged big spending cuts
- Trump salutes supporters in Florida, names budget director
- Former SEAL Zinke tapped for Interior secretary
- Perry would bring oil industry ties to Energy Department
- Trump announces selection of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state
- Trump expected to tap Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson secretary of State
- President-elect Donald Trump: Rudy Giuliani taking himself out of running for Cabinet post
- Trump expected to tap Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn for economic post
- Trump selects Tennessee business leader as labor secretary
- Trump picks WWE's Linda McMahon for Small Business Administration post
- Trump picks Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head EPA
- Trump taps retired four-star Gen. John Kelly to head Homeland Security
- HUD secretary nominee Ben Carson under fire for lack of experience
- Trump to nominate Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense
- Trump adds new administration picks
- Trump taps Betsy DeVos as secretary of education, South Carolina Gov. Haley for U.N. post
- Trump auditions Cabinet prospects high above Manhattan
- For Trump, lots of meetings, Cabinet picks still coming
- The Latest: Trump aide talks about possible Cabinet heads
- Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, so far
- Alexander, Corker back Senate colleague as Trump's attorney general
- Trump taps Sessions, Flynn, Pompeo for top positions
- Trump picks Alabama Sen. Sessions for AG
- AP Source: Trump offers National Security Adviser job to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn
- AP Source: Trump offers National Security Adviser job to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn
- Corker: Giuliani, Bolton 'more likely' to get Trump nod as secretary of state
- Rudy Giuliani's foreign work complicates candidacy for top post
- Amid signs of transition trouble, Trump huddles with Pence
- Trump's transition team loses a key figure as he struggles to find his footing
- Giuliani emerges as favorite for Trump's secretary of state
- Trump puts flame-throwing outsider on the inside
- European Union awaits Trump team to assess future of trans-Atlantic ties
- Kansas' secretary of state added to Trump transition team
- Donald Trump names Reince Priebus, Stephen Bannon to senior White House roles
- Rep. Blackburn named to Trump presidential transition team following shakeup
- Trump chief of staff pick to signal direction of presidency
- Corey Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager, leaves CNN
- Mike Pence to lead President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, replacing Chris Christie
- Alexander urges Trump to add Corker to his presidential cabinet
- Corker confirms he spoke with Trump and Pence Wednesday; claims they did not discuss possible cabinet post
WASHINGTON - Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions fervently rejected "damnably false" accusations of past racist comments Tuesday as he challenged Democratic concerns about the civil rights commitment he would bring as Donald Trump's attorney general. He vowed at his confirmation hearing to stay independent from the White House and stand up to Trump when necessary.
Sessions laid out a sharply conservative vision for the Justice Department he would oversee, pledging to crack down on illegal immigration, gun violence and the "scourge of radical Islamic terrorism" and to keep open the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
But he also distanced himself from some of Trump's public pronouncements.
He said waterboarding, a now-banned harsh interrogation technique that Trump has at times expressed support for, was "absolutely improper and illegal."
Though he said he would prosecute immigrants who repeatedly enter the country illegally and criticized as constitutionally "questionable" an executive action by President Barack Obama that shielded certain immigrants from deportation, he said he did "not support the idea that Muslims, as a religious group, should be denied admission to the United States."
Trump earlier in his campaign called for a temporary total ban on Muslims entering his country but has more recently proposed "extreme vetting."
Sessions asserted that he could confront Trump if needed, saying an attorney general must be prepared to resign if asked to do something "unlawful or unconstitutional."
Nothing new came out of the hearing that seemed likely to threaten Sessions' confirmation by the Republican Senate.
Yet as he outlined his priorities, his past - including a 1986 judicial nomination that failed amid allegations that he'd made racially charged comments - hovered over the proceedings. Protesters calling Sessions a racist repeatedly interrupted and were hustled out by Capitol police.
Sessions vigorously denied that he had ever called the NAACP "un-American." He said he had never harbored racial animus, calling the allegations - which included that he had referred to a black attorney in his office as "boy" - part of a false caricature.
"It wasn't accurate then," Sessions said. "It isn't accurate now."
He said he "understands the history of civil rights and the horrendous impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters. I have witnessed it."
"I know we need to do better. We can never go back," Sessions said. "I am totally committed to maintaining the freedom and equality that this country has to provide to every citizen."
Politics got its share of attention, too, with Sessions promising to recuse himself from any investigation there might be into Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom he had criticized during the presidential campaign.
Trump said during the campaign he would name a special prosecutor to look into Clinton's use of a private email server, but he has since backed away. The FBI and Justice Department declined to bring charges last year.
Sessions, known as one of the most staunchly conservative members of the Senate, smiled amiably as he began his presentation, taking time to introduce his grandchildren, joking about Alabama football and making self-deprecating remarks about his strong Southern accent.
He has solid support from the Senate's Republican majority and from some Democrats in conservative-leaning states.
But he faces a challenge persuading skeptical Democrats that he'll be fair and committed to civil rights, a chief priority of the Justice Department during the Obama administration, as the country's top law enforcement official.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked whether he could be trusted to enforce the laws he has voted against, including expanded hate crime protections. He said he could, noting that he accepted the Roe v. Wade opinion on abortion as the law of the land even though he personally opposed it.
Feinstein said, "There is so much fear in this country. I see it, I hear it - particularly in the African-American community, from preachers, from politicians, from everyday Americans."
If confirmed, Sessions would succeed Attorney General Loretta Lynch and would be in a position to reshape Justice Department priorities not only in civil rights but also environmental enforcement, criminal justice and national security.
He said he supported continued use of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for terror suspects, a sharp departure from an Obama administration that has supported prosecuting militants in American courts.
And he hinted he'd be less eager than Obama's Justice Department to prod city police departments into court-enforceable improvement plans, known as consent decrees, to resolve allegations of pervasive civil rights violations. He said he did not consider it fair to criticize an entire department for what might be the actions of just a few.
"We need to be sure that when we criticize law officers, it is narrowly focused on the right basis for criticism," he said, adding that "to smear whole departments places those officers at greater risk."
Sessions was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and before that served as Alabama attorney general and a U.S. attorney.
He's been a reliably conservative voice in Congress, supporting government surveillance programs and opposing a 2013 bipartisan immigration bill that included a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
In a dramatic turn, Senate colleague Cory Booker of New Jersey - one of three black senators - is to testify against Sessions on Wednesday. Booker's office says that will be an unprecedented instance of a senator testifying against a colleague seeking a Cabinet post.
In a statement, Booker accused Sessions of having a "concerning" record on civil rights and criminal justice reform.