Sessions opposes ban on Muslims, waterboarding
US President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, promised on Tuesday to stand up to Trump, his close ally and future boss, saying he would oppose a ban on Muslims entering the country and enforce a law against waterboarding even though he voted against the measure.
Questioned for 10-1/2 hours by a US Senate committee responsible for confirming his appointment, Sessions, a US senator from Alabama, distanced himself from comments he had made defending Trump from criticism over a 2005 video that emerged in October showing Trump boasting about grabbing women's genitals.
At the time, Sessions told The Weekly Standard magazine he would not characterize the behavior as sexual assault. He later said the comments were taken out of context. Asked on Tuesday whether "grabbing a woman by her genitals without consent is ... sexual assault," he replied: "Clearly, it would be."
With 10 days to go before Trump takes office, Sessions, 70, was the first Cabinet nominee to face questioning.
As attorney general, Sessions would serve as the top US law enforcement officer and be responsible for giving unbiased legal advice to the president and executive agencies.
A senator since 1997, Sessions was widely expected to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Sessions said he would not support banning anyone from the United States on the basis of religion and that Trump's intentions were to restrict people from countries harboring terrorists, not all Muslims. Elected on Nov 8, Trump at one point campaigned on a proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country.
Sessions said he favored "higher intensity of vetting" for refugees seeking to enter the United States from countries that harbor terrorists but that he would oppose ending the US refugee program.
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