Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, setting him up for a confirmation vote on the Senate floor in the coming days.

As expected, Republicans and Democrats split on his controversial nomination, and he was approved by the committee in a 11-9 party-line vote.

The vote was originally scheduled for Tuesday, b ut Senate Democrats deployed an obscure rule to push the vote by 24 hours.

While Republicans are prepared to confirm their long-serving Senate colleague to be the nation's top law enforcement officer, Democrats continued to question whether Sessions would be independent from President Trump.

During Wednesday's meeting, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, appeared to get into a fight over Sessions' record. Franken was given about 22 minutes to speak after not being able to the day prior, and he took the time to criticize Sessions' record as well as the prior day's remarks by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Franken defended his remarks to Cornyn by saying Cruz did the same thing and was not objected to.

"It would be a decent and honorable thing to do to do it in the senator's presence," Cornyn said, to which Franken replied: "Well, get him here." Cruz eventually did show up to the hearing, though after Franken's comments.

More than 30 years ago, Sessions' nomination to become a federal judge in Alabama was rejected by the Senate after accusations of racism plagued him. Many of those who opposed Sessions' nomination then cited his record on race, as well as voting rights, immigration and drug sentencing.

The NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union have pushed hard against Sessions since he was nominated by Trump to be attorney general.