Mayor Kenney Believes Sessions AG Confirmation Will Set Back Police-Community Trust
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Wednesday, the United States Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's appointment of Senator Jeff Sessions to be the nation's Attorney General.
Like many of Trump's cabinet selections, Sessions faced opposition from democrats in the Senate who cited discrimination as a reason for why Sessions should not serve in the role. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker set a first by testifying against his fellow senator during Sessions' hearing.
Shortly after the confirmation on Wednesday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney released a statement regarding the pick:
"Last night, Coretta Scott King's concerns over Senator Jeff Sessions were silenced, so I will echo them here," the mayor wrote.
$227 Million Settlement Reached In Deadly Salvation Army Store Collapse
"I have great concern that, as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions will reverse the reform that has strengthened police-community trust in Philadelphia, helping to bring our crime rate to a forty-year low. I also fear that Sessions will enforce discriminatory voting laws that serve only to disenfranchise millions of voters—the majority of them poor and people of color—in order to address statistically insignificant, isolated incidents of voter fraud. I hope he proves those concerns unfounded. But if he does not, then I encourage Philadelphians to protest his nomination by exercising their right to vote as they never have before"
