Virginia Tech expert Brandy Faulkner says the responses from attorney general-nominee Jeff Sessions during this week’s confirmation hearing were very effective in garnering the support he needs for confirmation, despite the fact that more than 200 civil rights and liberties organizations are actively opposing his confirmation.
“His responses demonstrate a complete reinvention,” said Faulkner, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech whose areas of expertise include constitutional and administrative law, race and public policy, and critical organization theory. “It’s a tactic nearly identical to the one Vice President-elect Mike Pence used in the vice presidential debate with Tim Kaine. No matter how many facts were thrown at him, and even when his own words were quoted, he very calmly denied them or minimized their significance to his role as attorney general.”
“In many ways this hearing will set the tone for the ones to come in the near future. While Sessions certainly isn’t the only controversial nominee, the relatively quick scheduling of his hearing has mobilized many communities who oppose him.”
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