'We're Not Irrelevant': Democrats Vow to Continue Campaign of Obstruction

After weeks of bitter partisanship, the Senate voted on President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Justice Department.

Following more than 30 hours of debate that started Tuesday afternoon, members of Congress late Wednesday confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be the nation's attorney general.

The vote for Sessions fell almost completely along party lines -- 52-47 -- with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia being the only Democrat to side with Republicans to confirm the nation's top law-enforcement officer.
 
"I appreciate the full debate that we've had," Sessions said shortly after the vote. "I want to thank those who after it all found sufficient confidence in me to cast their vote to confirm me as the next attorney general of the United States of America."
 
Twenty days after taking the oath of office, President Trump only has six of his 15 cabinet nominees in place.

By this time, President Barack Obama had 12 confirmed; President George W. Bush had all of his voted in.

The president took to Twitter to air some of his frustration, writing: "It is a disgrace that my full cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!"
 
Votes are set later this week for Steve Mnuchin as Treasury secretary and Tom Price as secretary of Health & Human Services.
 
Price will play a key role in repealing and replacing Obamacare. Democrats and their allies are promising they won't let the law go down without a fight.

Democrats, who are in search for a strategy to deal with the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress, say they plan to aggressively challenge the new White House occupant.
 
"Three weeks in, the White House has revealed President Trump is exactly who we thought he is: incompetent and in some cases, in terms of our national security, dangerous," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.
 
Democrats are meeting for their annual retreat in Baltimore this week. And the party's top leadership is making clear it will fight the president at every turn.

"We're not irrelevant at all," said Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House. "We don't have to have our head bowed. We don't have to retreat in any way."

So it appears that for the foreseeable future, President Trump is going to be facing more bitter opposition from Democrats.