© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has officially announced that he will oppose Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (R-AL) nomination for U.S. attorney general. “After reviewing his record and giving careful consideration to his answers during the hearing, I am not confident in Senator Sessions’s ability to be a defender of the rights of all Americans, or to serve as an independent check on the incoming administration,” he wrote in a Thursday morning statement. “I am also deeply concerned by his views on immigration, which I saw firsthand during the push for comprehensive immigration reform. For those reasons, I will oppose his nomination to serve as the next attorney general.” Weeks earlier, a slightly skeptical Schumer would not indicate whether he’d support his senatorial colleague’s nomination as AG.