Trump Has Picked an Attorney General & National Security Adviser, & Their Views Are Worrisome

Donald Trump is in the process of picking key posts for his administration. Recently, he has chosen Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, and former military intelligence chief Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. The Associated Press reports that both individuals have been “fierce critics” of President Obama’s handling of terrorism and international relations. Both were also two of Trump’s biggest supporters during his campaign.

Because of Trump’s lack of experience in foreign policy, the U.S. and other nations are watching him closely where national security is concerned. Sessions will need senate approval to take the role of attorney general, but Flynn won’t need it for his role as national security advisor.

That’s unfortunate, considering Flynn once called Islam nothing more than a political ideology hiding behind the façade of a religion, while speaking at an event for an anti-Islam group. According to the Guardian, he has tweeted that the fear of Muslims is rational. He's been paid to attend a Russian event for a television station funded by the government with Vladimir Putin, worrying national security experts, and the Guardian reports that he frequently appears on the station, RT.

Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump, but even with Republicans in control of the Senate he is expected to face difficulties in his confirmation hearing. While serving as a U.S. attorney in Alabama in 1986, he was withdrawn from consideration for a federal judgeship after accusations of making racist comments. According to the New York Times, he said the KKK was "fine" until he "found out they smoke pot," but later said this comment was a joke. This was one of several racist comments that precluded him from becoming a judge.

“Mr. Sessions is a throwback to a shameful era, which I know both black and white Americans thought was in our past,” the Boston Globe reports the late Massachusetts Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy saying at the time. “It is inconceivable to me that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a U.S. attorney, let alone a U.S. federal judge.” Kennedy would be in for quite the shock if he could see the attitude of the man who was just elected president.

Sessions doesn't think suspected terrorists should have constitutional rights in court, or that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay should be closed—a break from the last two attorney generals. He also opposed the Voting Rights Act and the Violence Against Women Act, according to the Atlantic, and thought it would be a "stretch" to describe Trump's alleged grabbing of women "by the pussy" as sexual assault.

According to the Globe, it has not been announced if Sessions or Flynn had accepted their positions. Meanwhile, we’re sure Donald Trump will continue to select his administration just as though America were The Apprentice.

Did you know that you, too, can be a part of the Trump Administration? You can apply here.