If Democrats use all the time available to debate Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination, the confirmation vote is expected sometime Wednesday evening. | AP Photo Sessions clears key hurdle to be attorney general

The Senate on Tuesday moved Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) one step closer to confirmation as the nation’s attorney general, with a key procedural vote launching a final frenzy of debate over his nomination.

Even before senators voted 52-47 to push Sessions toward a final confirmation vote, Democrats led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) began making their case against installing him as the country’s chief law enforcement official.


But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been one of Sessions’ most loyal defenders, took to the floor Tuesday afternoon with a surprise: One of the attorney general nominee’s fiercest opponents during his confirmation fight – the NAACP – once gave Sessions its “Governmental Award of Excellence.”

The 2009 award was discovered when an aide was cleaning out Sessions’ Mobile, Ala., office as he prepared for his move to the Justice Department. The NAACP has vigorously opposed his nomination, with its president, Cornell Brooks, testifying against Sessions at his confirmation hearing in January.

Democrats have also gone after Sessions for awards he’s received that they’ve deemed controversial, including from groups critical of immigrants and Muslims. Sessions disclosed his NAACP award in a questionnaire supplement sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

“Apparently [Brooks] doesn’t stay in contact with the NAACP chapter in Alabama,” Graham said on the floor. “Most of the things said about Jeff Sessions and the way he acted as a senator could be said about almost all of us on this side who consider themselves conservative.”

Still, Democrats – who’ve chastised Sessions for his record on civil rights, voting issues and a litany of other topics – are likely to vote almost unanimously against him on his final confirmation vote. And they might hold the floor for another all-night talk-a-thon to underscore their opposition.

Schumer argued that President Donald Trump’s recent tangle with the courts – including deriding the judge who halted his executive order curtailing immigration – made it imperative that an attorney general be able to show some independence from Trump. Sessions, Schumer said on the Senate floor, was not that person.

“What we’ve seen is a president who belittles judges when they don’t agree with him. What we’ve seen is a president who is willing to shake the roots of the Constitution and a fundamental premise, no religious test, that’s embodied in our Constitution within his first few weeks in office,” Schumer said. “We certainly need an attorney general who will stand up to that president …. But [Sessions] is not, if you can say one thing about him, he’s not independent of Donald Trump.”

In relatively harsh language for a fellow senator, Schumer also called the Alabama Republican, a leading advocate of restricting immigration, “probably the most anti-immigrant member” of the chamber.

Republicans defended their longtime colleague who won uniform support from the GOP conference despite past policy clashes with Sessions on issues such as immigration and criminal justice reform.

“We all know Sen. Sessions to be a man of his word. We know he’s a man who believes in the rule of law,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday morning. “It’s been unfortunate to hear the attacks that some on the far left have directed at our friend over the past few weeks.”

Sessions cleared the Judiciary Committee on a party-line, 11-9 vote last week.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the sole Democrat to cross party lines and back Sessions Tuesday. Sessions voted present on the floor.

If Democrats use all the time available to debate Sessions’ nomination, the confirmation vote is expected sometime Wednesday evening.