Trump Offers Sessions, Pompeo Top Positions
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NEW YORK (CBSMiami) - One day after offering a retired three star general the post as national security adviser, President-Elect Donald Trump has reportedly made another pick which is sure to be controversial.
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has been offered the post of U.S. Attorney General, sources directly involved in the selection process told CBS News.
The Trump transition team released a statement saying the president-elect is "unbelievably impressed" with Sessions and his work as a U.S. attorney and state attorney general in Alabama.
Sessions confirmation is not guaranteed. When he faced Senate confirmation for a job 30 years ago, it didn't go well.
Sessions, who was nominated for a federal judgeship in 1986, was dogged by racist comments he was accused of making while serving as U.S. attorney in Alabama. He was said to have called a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" and the NAACP "un-American" and "communist-inspired."
Also on Friday, a Trump transition officials said Mike Pompeo, a Kansas congressman, has been tapped to be CIA director.
Pompeo is a conservative Republican and a fierce critic of President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.
On Thursday, Trump offered former military intelligence chief Michael Flynn the position of national security adviser.
Flynn was a fierce critic of President Barack Obama's military and foreign policy long before he began advising Trump on national security issues during the presidential campaign. While the position of national security adviser doesn't require Senate confirmation, Flynn would work in the West Wing and have frequent access to the president.
Flynn's selection amounts to Trump's first signal to allies and adversaries about the course he could take in office. It's unclear whether Flynn has accepted the job.
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