U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was among the more aggressive questioners of fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions this week in the Alabama Republican’s confirmation hearings to become the next attorney general of the United States.
Leahy, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Sessions was its ranking Republican, directly asked Sessions about remarks he’d made during the presidential campaign suggesting that Donald Trump might not have committed sexual assault when he bragged on a leaked tape about grabbing women’s crotches.
“Is grabbing a woman by her genitals, without consent, is that sexual assault?” Leahy said during Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing.
“Clearly, it would be,” Sessions said.
Leahy also pressed Sessions on his 2013 vote against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which expanded protections for LGBT victims, immigrants and tribal victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Sessions said he supported the goals of the bill but that he and most other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee thought some provisions went too far. “One of the concerns was a provision that gave tribal courts jurisdiction to try persons who were not tribal members. That was a big concern I raised on the legislation,” Sessions said.
Leahy also pressed Sessions, who has spoken out against marijuana legalization, whether he would prosecute “sick people who are using marijuana in accordance with our state law,” even though it’s in opposition to federal law.
Sessions responded, “I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law, Sen. Leahy, but absolutely, it’s a problem of resources for the federal government.”
Although Leahy issued an op ed a few days ago that suggested Sessions was “too extreme” for the job because of his opposition to civil rights laws Leahy has backed, the Vermont Democrat has not yet said explicitly whether he will vote against the nomination.
Meanwhile, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., pressed Secretary of State-nominee Rex Tillerson on his views of Muslims, and drew out that the former ExxonMobil CEO is clearly less radical on the subject than Trump himself.
“In your view, is it helpful to suggest that as Americans we should be afraid of Muslims?” Shaheen asked.
“No, Senator, in my travels and because of my past work, I’ve traveled extensively in Muslim countries … and have gained an appreciation and recognition of this great faith,” Tillerson said. “That’s why I made a distinction that we should support those Muslim voices that reject this same radical Islam that we reject. This is part of winning the war other than on the battlefield.”
Tillerson also told Shaheen he does “not support a blanket-type rejection of any particular group of people” in terms of immigration but also said “clearly we have serious challenges being able to vet people.”
Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott has tapped a Randolph Center farmer and logger for a major job in his administration. Sam Lincoln on Friday was appointed deputy commissioner of the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
Lincoln posted on his Facebook page that he was “trading my Carhartt’s for a coat and tie in Montpelier. … Governor Scott has given me a tremendous opportunity to serve, and among the many responsibilities I am yet to learn of, I generally will be working collaboratively with many leaders across state government to turn head-on into issues in and around the forest products industry and economy, which is currently undergoing a severe market disruption.”
Lincoln graduated from Vermont Technical College with a degree in agribusiness management.
Etna Republican Jim Rubens, who has challenged the GOP establishment in two successive U.S. Senate races, this week tweeted out that he favors pardoning Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor. “Just signed petition asking President Obama to pardon Edward Snowden, who BTW has stated he will submit to fair trial,” Rubens wrote.
Also on Twitter, Fordham Law professor and Norwich native Zephyr Teachout is helping to lead the Democratic charge against Trump’s likely conflict of interests if he doesn’t fully divest his holdings. “Donald Trump is not selling his businesses. Therefore, he will be violating the foreign bribery/emoluments clause of the Constitution,” she wrote on Wednesday after his news conference.
Caledonia state Sen. Joe Benning, whose district includes several Bradford-area towns, is no longer the Vermont Senate Republican leader. Benning, who unlike many of his GOP colleagues backed marijuana legalization, nominated state Sen. Dustin Degree, of St. Albans, to succeed him as leader. The 31-year-old Degree was an aide for then-Gov. Jim Douglas and was a Vermont reporter for MTV’s “Choose or Lose” coverage of the 2008 presidential election, according to his Senate biography.