Thread: Who’ll Be First in Congress to Endorse Trump?

By David Hawkings
Posted at 5 a.m. Jan. 28


Sessions has been effusive in his praise for Trump. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Of all Donald Trump’s curious unblemished records, this one will almost surely end pretty soon: At last one member of Congress will endorse him for president.

As good a bet as any is that this signal move will come from Jeff Sessions, the junior Republican senator from Alabama.

The body of circumstantial evidence pointing his way has been growing steadily. In August, Sessions was the first lawmaker to appear with the billionaire businessman at a campaign rally, where he was photographed sporting a “Make America Great Again” ball cap. Soon afterward the senator, who’s chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, acted as ghostwriter for Trump’s hard-line immigration platform. Then the pair adopted almost identical language for castigating the Iran nuclear deal. Sessions got the only one-on-one meeting when Trump came to Capitol Hill in the fall. This month, Sessions approached conservative opinion leaders to volunteer effusive praise for Trump’s protectionist trade agenda.

Capping it all off, this week the senator gave one of his top aides for the past seven years, Stephen Miller, an indefinite leave of absence to join the Trump campaign as a senior policy and communications adviser.

(Miller was behind a memo Sessions sent to other GOP senators in 2013, which foreshadowed the genesis of Trump’s candidacy by urging the party to embrace an “honest populism” designed “to speak directly to the real and legitimate concerns of millions of hurting Americans whose wages have declined and whose job prospects have grown only bleaker.”)

Sessions’ office won’t say when, or even if, he will formalize his support, but his enthusiasm clearly stands out as far more overt than any other lawmaker’s.

If things break Trump’s way in the very close Iowa caucuses, and then he secures his poll-predicted win in the New Hampshire primary, his standing as the leader for the Republican nomination will no longer be questioned. By that point, lawmakers more covert or ambiguous in their support than Sessions will come under additional pressure to climb aboard the Trump bandwagon publicly.

“All of these Republican senators, he doesn’t have the support of one of them,” Trump said Tuesday on MSNBC about his principal Iowa rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. “I don’t find anybody that likes him. I talk to senators that frankly want to come out and endorse me. It’s amazing what’s happened over the last two weeks. Over the last two weeks, so many people are calling and saying, ‘We want to get involved with you, we want to endorse you.’”

While it’s true that Cruz has no Senate colleagues in his corner, he has secured declarations of support from 17 of the most conservative House members. Only the two Floridians, Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush, have more backing than Cruz from incumbent lawmakers, and each of their lists includes a handful of senators. By contrast, the only presidential candidates in either party without endorsement from Capitol Hill are Trump and two others at the back of the GOP pack, pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Gov. Jim Gilmore of Virginia.

When he was campaigning as the avatar of the outsider insurgents, there was no point in Trump spending time wooing people whose very job titles put them in the establishment. But if the evolved rationale for his candidacy holds, and he continues selling himself as the sort of get-it-done dealmaker who’s just right for fixing a broken capital, then it makes sense for him to lock down support from his would-be future helpmates on the Hill.

The roster of opportunities is remarkably large for this stage in the campaign — 38 GOP senators (70 percent of them) and 151 House Republicans (61 percent) remain officially uncommitted. That may reflect the unusually unsettled rhythm of the race.

It also may underscore this conventional political wisdom: The potential reward from backing the victor is outweighed by the genuine risk of aligning with a loser, which means getting off on the wrong foot with the next leader of your party. Members facing competitive races of their own are especially wary of endorsements, for fear of getting tied either to nonentities or to nominees who become a drag on down-ballot campaigns.

Sessions is as far as possible from all that. When he secured his fourth term in 2014, he was the only senator from either party re-elected without any opponent in the primary or general election.

Trim, courtly and unpretentious, he has nonetheless become one of the tea party’s favorites because of his steadfast and quietly dogged focus on advancing small-government conservatism with a militarily hawkish edge. (He voted the way President Barack Obama wanted just 37 percent of the time last year, the second-lowest support score in the Senate.)

Hitching himself to an eventually victorious Trump could also provide an opportunity for late-career professional advancement next year, when Sessions will be 71.

Though he’s about to finish his second decade in the Senate, the vagaries of the seniority system mean he’s several years away from claiming the chairmanship of any committee, and that’s assuming the GOP controls the Senate when the time comes. So he’d have reason to be open to a top administration position.

Attorney general is the most obvious fit, given Sessions’ authorship of Trump’s immigration policies, his broad range of legislative interests on Judiciary and his career before Congress as Alabama’s attorney general and the U.S. attorney in Birmingham.

Securing confirmation to run the Justice Department would offer a uniquely satisfying bookend for his relationship with the Senate, which actually began a decade before his first election. As a federal prosecutor in 1986, his nomination to a U.S. District Court seat was rejected because of several statements suggesting insensitivity on race. It was only the second time in half a century the Judiciary Committee had voted down a judicial nominee.

Sessions has always maintained his comments were misrepresented or taken out of context. Siding with Trump would give him a solid shot at claiming the last word.

http://blogs.rollcall.com/hawkings/w...se-trump/?dcz=

Roll Call: Jeff Sessions and Trump—the Working Partnership

Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images

by BREITBART NEWS
28 Jan 2016
David Hawkings at Roll Call details the growing relationship between Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
and Republican populist presidential candidate Donald Trump.


From Roll Call:

In August, Jeff Sessions was the first lawmaker to appear with the billionaire businessman at a campaign rally, where he was photographed sporting a “Make America Great Again” ball cap. Soon afterward the senator, who’s chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, acted as ghostwriter for Trump’s hard-line immigration platform. Then the pair adopted almost identical language for castigating the Iran nuclear deal. Sessions got the only one-on-one meeting when Trump came to Capitol Hill in the fall. This month, Sessions approached conservative opinion leaders to volunteer effusive praise for Trump’s protectionist trade agenda.

Capping it all off, this week the senator gave one of his top aides for the past seven years, Stephen Miller, an indefinite leave of absence to join the Trump campaign as a senior policy and communications adviser.

(Miller was behind a memo Sessions sent to other GOP senators in 2013, which foreshadowed the genesis of Trump’s candidacy by urging the party to embrace an “honest populism” designed “to speak directly to the real and legitimate concerns of millions of hurting Americans whose wages have declined and whose job prospects have grown only bleaker.”)
Sessions’ office won’t say when, or even if, he will formalize his support, but his enthusiasm clearly stands out as far more overt than any other lawmaker’s.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...g-partnership/

As good a bet as any is that this signal move will come from Jeff Sessions, the junior Republican senator from Alabama.

Junior Republican senator? Rubio and Cruz are "junior Senators". Senator Jeff Session has been in the US Senate since 1997. Almost 20 years. How long do you have to be there before you're a Senior Republican Senator?

I love the Senior Senator from Alabama, Jeff Sessions! I hope he endorses Donald Trump! That would be quite a team to knock some good legislation out of Congress that we all want.

Sen. Sessions has to be extremely careful here because if he endorses someone that turns around and negotiates an amnesty bill with the liberals it will reflect badly upon him. He's not blind to the fact that Trump has said he is a great deal maker and can work with Pelosci, Schumer, and the like to make deals. I get very nervous when I hear someone is willing to work with liberal leadership, especially when I know they will accept nothing less than a path to citizenship for illegals. They've made that fact well known on many occasions. Sen. Sessions is doing the right thing by not giving his endorsement to anyone right now. Furthermore, like many ALIPAC members, I've followed Sen. Sessions long enough to know he is probably not going to endorse anyone in the primaries unless he is 100% sure their vision for America mirrors his own.

Well, you don't have to worry about amnesty for illegals or any deal like that in regards to illegal aliens if Trump wins. Trump is going to get them the hell out of here in 2 years or less and doesn't need a "deal" with anyone in Congress to do that. No illegal aliens = No amnesty.

That's why Trump says all the time how smart his supporters are, we get it.

STAY TRUE!! STAY TRUMP!!

Originally Posted by Judy

Well, you don't have to worry about amnesty for illegals or any deal like that in regards to illegal aliens if Trump wins. Trump is going to get them the hell out of here in 2 years or less and doesn't need a "deal" with anyone in Congress to do that. No illegal aliens = No amnesty.

That's why Trump says all the time how smart his supporters are, we get it.

STAY TRUE!! STAY TRUMP!!

Oh but I do worry and will continue to do so regardless of who gets elected.

That's okay, and I understand.



If he starts to mess up, we'll "SCHLONGE" him!!



Really, Donald Trump is a very reliable, honorable person. He's not in this for any reason other than to fix our country and do what he says he's going to do. Trump says he's going to deport all illegal aliens, then that's what he will do. With them gone, the whole amnesty fight is over due to lack of illegal aliens to give amnesty to. They're off welfare, now he can start balancing the budget and get Americans back to work. He's a numbers guy.

He wants welfare reduced and deporting illegal aliens is the fastest way to do it. He wants Americans back to work, well, there's 10 million jobs just opened up from that one simple thing of deporting all those who aren't supposed to be working here. When he fixes the free trade, the manufacturers come home and workers can move up and switch out to the good jobs and graduates and young people and others can take the jobs they vacated and with more jobs, more demand for labor, now wages rise and that reduces the poverty level which further reduces the welfare cost, and education costs, and health care costs and crime costs, and on and on and on. Put all that with staying out of foreign wars, and now he can balance the budget, and the debt stops rising. Soon we'll have a surplus and he can start paying down the debt.

Keep it all in check, and America is Great Again.

Originally Posted by Judy

That's okay, and I understand.



If he starts to mess up, we'll "SCHLONGE" him!!



Really, Donald Trump is a very reliable, honorable person. He's not in this for any reason other than to fix our country and do what he says he's going to do. Trump says he's going to deport all illegal aliens, then that's what he will do. With them gone, the whole amnesty fight is over due to lack of illegal aliens to give amnesty to. They're off welfare, now he can start balancing the budget and get Americans back to work. He's a numbers guy.

He wants welfare reduced and deporting illegal aliens is the fastest way to do it. He wants Americans back to work, well, there's 10 million jobs just opened up from that one simple thing of deporting all those who aren't supposed to be working here. When he fixes the free trade, the manufacturers come home and workers can move up and switch out to the good jobs and graduates and young people and others can take the jobs they vacated and with more jobs, more demand for labor, now wages rise and that reduces the poverty level which further reduces the welfare cost, and education costs, and health care costs and crime costs, and on and on and on. Put all that with staying out of foreign wars, and now he can balance the budget, and the debt stops rising. Soon we'll have a surplus and he can start paying down the debt.

Keep it all in check, and America is Great Again.

You're forgetting his promise to expedite the return of the so-called good illegals. Won't matter much if he deports 20 million if he figures out a way to expedite the return of 16 million of them. Just saying ...........

Originally Posted by MW

Sen. Sessions has to be extremely careful here because if he endorses someone that turns around and negotiates an amnesty bill with the liberals it will reflect badly upon him. He's not blind to the fact that Trump has said he is a great deal maker and can work with Pelosi, Schumer, and the like to make deals. I get very nervous when I hear someone is willing to work with liberal leadership, especially when I know they will accept nothing less than a path to citizenship for illegals. They've made that fact well known on many occasions. Sen. Sessions is doing the right thing by not giving his endorsement to anyone right now. Furthermore, like many ALIPAC members, I've followed Sen. Sessions long enough to know he is probably not going to endorse anyone in the primaries unless he is 100% sure their vision for America mirrors his own.

My take on Trump's comment that he is a great deal maker and can work with Pelosi, Schumer, and the like to make deals, is about appealing to Democrats. He has to win over Democrats in order to get elected. He is positioning himself against Cruz who is strident. No Democrat is going to cross over and vote for Cruz. Reagan was the same way. Reagan was just enough liberal to gainer all of the Democrat blue dogs. Trump here is signaling that he is not strident and that he is there for all people. Trump is serious on the borders and deportation. He would not say those things if he wasn't. He is man of his word and has the character to stand up which he has.

The now current Demographics of America is against Republicans; Demographics favor Democrats. The Democratic party has been re-arranging the demographics to seal their control over this country. They are doing that by Demographics. Trump HAS TO COURT Democrats in order to win. He also needs that for a mandate.

You're forgetting his promise to expedite the return of the so-called good illegals. Won't matter much if he deports 20 million if he figures out a way to expedite the return of 16 million of them. Just saying ...........

He never "promised". As he was ramping up public support he said we'll "try and bring the really good ones back on an expedited return". Later when pressed on it, he mentioned "doctors, well-educated ones" as an example. Then later pressed the point "remember there's other people who already want in who didn't violate our laws so that has to be considered". Then later pressed the point "they can't be harming us in anyway, taking jobs Americans want". Then boom the ban on Muslim immigration.

When you follow the strategy of how he's united this nation against illegal immigration and in support of mass deportations and done so with such few words, such little effort, but with a keen strategy it's remarkable really. And he'll remember every exact word he said, and every word is on video.

And he's not done. He'll be ramping it up again to a full moratorium on all immigration for a period of years.