No serious opposition to Trump's cabinet picks on day one of hearings

The U.S. congress on Tuesday held a hearing to examine the nominations of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general and John Kelly to be secretary of homeland security.

Despite the hearing for Sessions' nomination will proceed Wednesday, people at the hearings say both men are likely to clinch their respective cabinet posts.

The hearing for Sessions, a senator representing Alabama, ran for more than 10 hours during which Sessions was questioned on a wide array of issues from his controversial past to future positions on a host of hot legal debates.

Sessions said his priorities as the attorney general will be improving relations between police and the communities they serve, especially in minority neighborhoods.

He also listed cracking down on terror, stopping the inflow of drugs from the southern border, protecting the U.S. treasury from fraud, waste and abuse as important tasks.

Sessions, a conservative, spoke in favor the gun rights, saying "I do believe the Second Amendment is a personal right, a historical right that the Constitution protects."

He also avoided promising anything concrete on global warming.

"I don't deny we have global warming. It's a question of how much is happening and what the reaction would be to it," he said.

But to sooth senate Democrats, he pledged to uphold existing laws protecting the LGBT rights and opposed a ban on Muslims entering the country.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducted the hearing, also examined Sessions' failed attempt nomination to the district court in 1986 due to racism allegations, which Sessions firmly denied.

"I was accused, amazingly, of harboring sensibilities for the KKK. These are false allegations ... I abhor the Klan and what it represents and its hateful ideology," he explained.

Protest broke out and interrupted the hearing multiple times, the chantings were muted on the live televised coverage but local media reported that most protesters accused Sessions of racism.

Chuck Grassley, a fellow Republican who chaired the hearing, praised Sessions during lunch break, saying "It's clear that Senator Sessions is very well prepared and is demonstrating to the American people that all of us have known."

The hearing for Sessions will continue Wednesday, during which Democrat Senator Cory Booker is scheduled to testify against him, marking the first time in U.S. history that a senator testifies against a colleague seeking a cabinet post.

But with Republicans holding 52 of 100 seats in the Senate, there is no serious threat to Sessions' nomination.

In a separate hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, John Kelly had an easier time than Sessions as he enjoyed a wider acceptance among senators across the aisle.

During the hearing Kelly separated himself from several of President-elect Donald Trump's key positions, dismissing the effectiveness of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and opposing the use of torture against terrorist suspects.

But Kelly did side with Trump on promoting tougher enforcement of immigrations laws, especially in so-called sanctuary cities.

"I'm confident that he will be a moderating influence on President-elect Trump and some of his more divisive rhetoric that he displayed during the campaign when it comes to immigration and a Muslim ban and all the other things that were covered in the hearing today," Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill said after the hearing.

Hearings for more of Trump's cabinet picks are scheduled through the week, heavy weight positions including Defense Secretary, Secretary of State, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency will take place Wednesday.

Trump said Monday after a meeting with Chinese businessman Jack Ma that "confirmation is going great. I think they'll all pass."

According to archives, only nine cabinet nominees were rejected by the Senate in U.S. history.

source: Xinhua