{mosads}Manchin’s support is a big boost to Sessions’s chances. He needs a simple majority in the Senate to be confirmed, and the GOP is expected to control 52 seats in the chamber after next month’s Louisiana runoff elections. 

 

Republicans have largely rushed to back their colleague, and CNN reported that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pledged to help push through his nomination.

 

Top Democrats have voiced skepticism about the pick of Sessions, while acknowledging they personally know and get along with the GOP senator. 

Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Chris Coons (Del.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal(Conn.), all Judiciary Committee members, pledged to give Sessions a fair but thorough vetting process.

Feinstein, who will be the committee’s top Democrat in 2017, also appeared to fire a warning shot that Sessions will have to show he’s not too loyal to Trump.

But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Trump to drop Sessions, warning if he didn’t, the Senate could block the GOP senator for the second time. 

Senators blocked Sessions from getting a federal judgeship in 1986 after allegations — that Sessions has repeatedly denied — that he called an African-American assistant U.S. attorney “boy” and called the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union “un-American.”

Manchin, who faces a potentially difficult reelection bid in 2018, has created headlines since last week’s election for breaking with his party. After outgoing Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ripped Trump in a statement, Manchin called his rhetoric an “absolute embarrassment.”