WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet on Wednesday joined with his Democratic colleagues in a last-minute, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to derail the nomination of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General to serve under President Donald Trump.
In a roughly 20-minute floor speech delivered a couple hours before the Senate voted to approve Sessions, the Colorado Democrat reiterated his opposition to his appointment — focusing specifically on efforts by the Alabama Republican to undercut a 2013 immigration reform package in which Bennet played a key role.
“I sat here on this Senate floor night after night after night listening to the senator use fear and inaccuracies to derail our best chance in years to fix this broken immigration system,” he said.
Bennet was a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that authored a that would have swelled the ranks of border patrol agents while providing a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living illegally in the country. It passed the Senate 68-32 – with – but it never got a vote in the House.
“Contrary to his characterization of what was in that bill, the 2013 bill provided far greater security than President Trump’s plan,” Bennet said.
His broadside follows several days of attacks by Democrats on Trump’s nominees, which included the Tuesday night of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, an incident Bennet noted in passing during his remarks.
“My office has received nearly 23,000 calls and e-mails opposing this nomination – many of them I cannot read today on the floor for fear of violating the Senate rules,” Bennet said.
Trump repeatedly has criticized Senate Democrats for their opposition to Cabinet officials such as Sessions. In a Tweet on Tuesday he wrote: “It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!”
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., was one of 52 senators to back Sessions on Wednesday. Afterward, he said in a statement: “Mr. Sessions has an impressive legal career and a profound commitment to upholding the rule of law. I’ve had the opportunity to work with him in the Senate and witness firsthand his strong record of bipartisanship. I’m confident in his ability to serve as the chief law enforcement officer in the country.”