U.S. Senate moves Jeff Sessions toward confirmation as attorney general

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday, in a procedural vote, cleared the way for confirming President Donald Trump's nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general. After the vote was announced, Sessions' Republican colleagues applauded the outcome while barely a handful of Democrats did the same. Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey became the first sitting senator ever to testify against the nomination of a colleague, and growing tensions on the floor led to the rare use of Senate procedure on Tuesday to silence Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for quoting a 30-year-old letter attacking Sessions written by Coretta Scott King, the late widow of Martin Luther King Jr. Lawmakers greenlighted Senator Sessions as the 84th US attorney general on a mostly party line vote of 52 to 47, with just one Democrat - Joe Manchin of West Virginia - joining the Republican majority.
The United States Senate, in a 52 to 47 vote, confirms the nomination of Jeff Sessions as United States Attorney General.