President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the new attorney general has denied sympathising with the Ku Klux Klan, in a tough Senate confirmation hearing.
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, 69, also pledged to recuse himself from any investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
A Democratic senator expressed « deep concern » about the Alabama Republican’s nomination.
But Democrats do not have the power in the chamber to block his confirmation.
The attorney general, America’s top prosecutor, leads the US justice department and acts as the main adviser to the president on legal issues.
Mr Sessions, 69, said during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that allegations he had once supported the KKK were « damnably false ».
« I abhor the Klan and what it represents and its hateful ideology, » he added.
Mr Sessions also acknowledged « the horrendous impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters ».
His comments came after Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein voiced her concern over « fear in this country, particularly among the African-American community ».
She noted Senator Sessions had voted against an amendment affirming that the US would not bar people entering the US on the basis of their religion.
She also pointed out he had previously opposed efforts to ban waterboarding and expressed scepticism about the need for an anti-hate crime law.
« There’s deep fear about what a Trump administration will bring in many places, » said Ms Feinstein.
But Republican Senator Chuck Grassley described the nominee as a « man of honour and integrity ».
When questioned about his views on gay marriage and abortion rights, Mr Sessions said he would follow the law of the land on both issues.
But he also contended that Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for safe legal, abortions, violated the US Constitution.
In 2000 and 2009 Mr Sessions voted against legislation to expand the definition of a hate crime to include offences based on sexual orientation.
Protesters repeatedly disrupted Tuesday’s hearing.
Demonstrators dressed as members of the KKK chanted: « No Trump, No KKK, No Racist USA.  »
« Stop this racist pig from getting into power, » said an African-American demonstrator as she was led out of the hearing by police.
The Alabama politician, with 20 years under his belt in the Senate, is known as one of the most conservative members of the upper chamber.
He was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony that he made racist remarks.
Mr Sessions was also accused of calling a black assistant US attorney « boy » and telling him to be careful about how he spoke to « white folks ». But he denied saying it.
He also denied on Tuesday having once called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) « un-American ».
Republicans who have known him a long time and worked with him deny Mr Sessions is a racist.
Some have pointed out he supported the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights heroine Rosa Parks.
Mr Sessions opposed bipartisan efforts to give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, and wants to limit entry to the US, both legal and illegal.
He was one of the few Republicans to come to Mr Trump’s defence after he proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Sessions had been « more anti-immigration than just about any other single member of Congress ».
They will use the two days of hearings to try to depict Mr Sessions as extreme, getting him to defend past statements and actio
They may also get him to defend some of Mr Trump’s controversial statements.
Democratic Senator Cory Booker has said he will testify against Mr Sessions, in what is thought to be an unprecedented move.
« The immense powers of the attorney general combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience, » said the New Jersey senator.
Mr Booker pointed to the Alabama senator’s opposition to immigration reform, his criticism of the Voting Rights Act and his « failure to defend the civil rights of women, minorities, and LGBT Americans ».
Civil rights hero and congressman John Lewis may also testify.
All the president’s Cabinet appointments go to a vote in the Senate, where they can be approved by a simple majority.
Appointments cannot be confirmed until after Mr Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.

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© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38564478
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WASHINGTON — Republican anxiety is mounting over voting to unravel the health care law without having an alternative in hand, fanned by words of encouragement from Donald Trump to a GOP senator who wants to simultaneously repeal and replace the statute.
GOP leaders have made dismantling President Barack Obama’s treasured health care overhaul their premier 2017 priority. But even as the Republican-run Senate moves toward passing a budget that would make it harder for Democrats to protect Obama’s law later, at least six GOP senators have expressed qualms about repeal without having a substitute — something Republicans have failed for years to produce.
“We should start immediately to repeal, reform and replace Obamacare, and it shouldn’t be finally repealed until we have a replacement ready,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., whose panel will be at the center of this year’s battle, said in a brief interview.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who wants repeal and replace together, said the president-elect telephoned him Friday to voice support for that timing. Trump voiced that opinion shortly after his November election, but he called Paul as GOP congressional leaders have moved in a different direction: A quick repeal vote, followed by work on an alternative that could take months or years to craft.
“He’s aware of my arguments for doing replacement at the same time, and he agreed,” Paul said.
Even if Congress passed repeal rapidly, Republicans say they would phase it in, perhaps over two or three years.
Republicans don’t want to abruptly end coverage for 20 million Americans who’ve received coverage under the 2010 law, and don’t want to be vulnerable to Democrats already accusing them of preparing to tear down the statute without knowing how or if they’ll replace it.
“Turn back before it’s too late,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N. Y., said on the Senate floor just short of midnight as Democrats, before leaving for the night, lambasted Republicans with five-and-a-half hours of speeches. “It will damage your party,” Schumer said, “and it will hurt millions of Americans, far more importantly.”
Highlighting GOP indecision, Steve Bannon, who will be White House senior adviser after Trump is sworn in Jan. 20, said, “We’re still thinking that through” when asked by reporters after a meeting in the Capitol if repeal and replace should happen together.
The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, has required people to obtain coverage. It also created subsidies to help lower-earning people buy policies and expanded Medicaid, but the overhaul has been troubled by rising costs for many consumers and markets that some insurers abandoned.
The burgeoning Republican divisions come as the GOP-led Senate pushed toward a final vote this week on a budget that would prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block a later repealing Obama’s overhaul. That’s crucial because filibusters take 60 votes to halt in a chamber that Republicans control by only a 52-48 margin.
Others voicing Paul’s sentiment include Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Bob Corker of Tennessee.
The budget gives congressional committees until Jan. 27 to produce legislation annulling much of the health care law, although consequences for missing that deadline are minor.
Even so, Corker, Collins and three other GOP senators introduced a budget amendment delaying that target date until March 3. Corker said that would provide “additional time to get the policy right.”
On CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said replacement legislation would follow repeal “rapidly” but did not define the timetable.
Besides health care, senators are focused this week on confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet picks.
In Tuesday’s initial hearings, committees were examining Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Trump’s selection for attorney general, and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, his choice for homeland security secretary. Seven others were set for hearings this week.
Also Tuesday, a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing was set to explore spy agencies’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the U. S. election by hacking and distributing Democratic party emails to help Trump win the White House.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., met in his office Monday with top Trump transition aides to discuss GOP plans to revamp the tax system.
“I need to make sure that we are all on the same page. We have a huge challenge here, it was better tonight,” incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus was heard saying after the two-hour meeting.
Democrats’ Senate talk-a-thon condemning the GOP health care push ended just after midnight after roughly two dozen lawmakers spoke to C-SPAN cameras on the nearly vacant Senate floor. Democrats said Republicans want to “make America sick again” and were using a “repeal and run” strategy.

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Marijuana activists are anxious over President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, claiming he will orchestrate a federal crackdown on legal weed.
Sessions, who is having his confirmation hearing Tuesday, is a staunch opponent of marijuana reform and some activists worry his appointment may lead to further raids in states where marijuana is legal. Advocates of marijuana legalization at the state and federal level are concerned Trump will take a hands-off approach to the enforcement of current state laws and give Sessions permission to push a pro-marijuana prohibition agenda, reports Forbes.
Sessions is expected to secure the confirmation Tuesday and some activists allege there is already a plan in place to begin rebuking recent state decisions to legalize the substance.
“The rumor I’ve heard is that they will be cracking down with D. C. first,” Adam Eidinger, founder of the D. C. Cannabis Coalition, told Forbes. “That a large number of dispensaries are going to get shut down straight up, shut down by the DEA six months from now. Then all the states that legalized are going to get letters saying ‘No, don’t do it.’”
It remains unclear whether or not Trump will be adversarial against state marijuana laws, but he did promise to respect state law on the issue during the campaign. Sessions said in April lawmakers have failed to spread the message to the public, especially the youth, that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
“We need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it’s in fact a very real danger,” Sessions added.
Advocates for marijuana legalization in the District are planning a show of civil disobedience for Trump’s inauguration by protesting federal weed laws. The protesters will gather at Dupont Circle at 8 a.m. Jan. 20 and then march to the Capitol where they plan to give away 4,200 marijuana gifts. Selling weed in the District is illegal, but possession of up to two ounces of marijuana and gifting the substance is not a violation of local law.
The activists, led by Eidinger, also plan to smoke up four minutes and 20 seconds into Trump’s inaugural address, a number associated with weed and the date of the 420 marijuana holiday celebrated by smokers worldwide on April 2o. At this point, the protesters will be in violation of federal and local law and risk arrest from authorities.
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