Durbin: Won’t Rule Out a Vote for Cornyn If AG Sessions Resigns or Fired

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) speculated on the possibility of Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigning or being fired and who might replace him.

Durbin raised the possibility of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) as a replacement and wouldn’t rule out voting for him if he came before the Senate for confirmation.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARK HALPERIN, MSNBC SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Senator, on the off chance that either the attorney general resigns or he is fired, can you name one or two people who you think would be acceptable replacements to both Republican and Democratic senators and could win confirmation?

DURBIN: Who would take that job?

Honest to goodness, after what he’s done to Sessions, I don’t know. I mean, I can name some people but they would be my choices.

HALPERIN: Go ahead.

DURBIN: Well, you know, at this point I would say that — say John Cornyn’s name. It’s hard to believe that John Cornyn would give up his number two slot on the Republican side of the Senate. But he certainly has a strong resume. That’s one name I have heard.

But beyond that, I don’t know of anybody who’d be wiling to step up —

(CROSSTALK)

HALPERIN: — confirm John Cornyn as attorney general?

DURBIN: Well, I can tell you I’m not going to rule it out. I’ll just — I’ll just say that I know that any choice to be attorney general, if it ever reaches that point, is going to be controversial because the obvious question.

Are you being appointed to this position to eliminate the investigation of the Trump campaign and the Trump staff?

And if that question is not answered properly, I think that person is going to have a tough time, even with some Republican senators.

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