NRA steps up campaign for Sessions as Attorney General (VIDEOS)

The National Rifle Association is increasing their support for U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions’ stalling nomination to the spot of U.S. Attorney General.

The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action announced Wednesday they will be dropping a “six-figure” ad buy across selected markets for a video highlighting Sessions as the choice who will be tough on crime while friendly to gun rights.

“After eight years of political elites abandoning police, we need an Attorney General who supports police,” says the voiceover on the 30-second spot, interspersed with images of the Alabama Senator and police shootings before promising Sessions will support Second Amendment rights and get criminals off the streets.

“Jeff Sessions strongly supports our Second Amendment rights and will work tirelessly to defend them,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA-ILA in a statement issued to media with the ad.

Sessions, a former U.S. Attorney for over a decade and briefly Alabama’s Attorney General, is a staunch Republican who was nominated by President Trump shortly after he won the election last November. While 1,000 law professors urged his rejection, invoking President Ronald Reagan’s own reluctance to appoint him to the federal bench in 1986, the NRA and other conservative groups are vouching for Sessions.

The subject of intense questioning confirmation hearings in the Senate during which gun politics and crime were oft-visited topics, Sessions is now in a holding pattern.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calf., in Senate Judiciary Committee meetings this week, called for a delay in the vote on Sessions.

“This nomination is a very big deal,” said Feinstein.