10 things you need to know today: February 9, 2017

Jeff Sessions confirmed as attorney general, Supreme Court nominee calls Trump judiciary criticism "demoralizing," and more

Jeff Sessions speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee
(Image credit: Getty Images)

1. Jeff Sessions confirmed as attorney general

The Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general on Wednesday night after a contentious and racially charged debate. No Republicans defected in the 52-to-47 party-line vote, the latest example of the partisan battles over President Trump's most controversial Cabinet nominations. Sessions was confirmed a day after the GOP leadership silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for reading a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King accusing Sessions of using his power as a prosecutor to "chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Warren had violated a seldom-used rule against accusing a colleague of conduct unbecoming a senator. Several other Democrats later read the King letter and entered it into the Senate record with no objections.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.