Things are getting ugly in the political fight over Loretta Lynch’s nomination for attorney general, replacing Eric Holder.
Her confirmation is currently being held up and some are putting the blame square on Senate Republicans, even saying race may have played a role in the hold up. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin didn’t mince any words on Wednesday when he said the GOP was forcing the first female African American attorney general nominee to “sit in the back of the bus.”
Currently her nomination is tied up in a partisan fight over a human trafficking bill that has a controversial abortion amendment tacked on it.
“That is unfair. It’s unjust. It is beneath the decorum and dignity of the United States Senate,” said Durbin Wednesday, as his statement brought up memories of Jim Crow laws that forced African Americans to sit in the backs of buses.
Now Arizona Republican and former presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, is demanding an apology from Durbin, the senate’s minority whip.
From MSNBC:
“What is beneath the decorum and dignity of the United States Senate, I would say to the senator from Illinois, is for him to come to this floor and use that imagery and suggest that racist tactics are being employed to delay Ms. Lynch’s confirmation vote,” McCain said. “Such inflammatory rhetoric has no place in this body and serves no purpose other than to further divide us.”
But Durbin didn’t back down from his comments, pressing on with the question “why?” asking what is the GOP’s hold up. So far Lynch, who has a flawless record as a federal prosecutor and sailed though her confirmation hearings, has had to wait the longest of any other attorney general nominee in modern history. She’s been waiting a record 131 days. Her predecessor Holder was confirmed in half the time and her wait has been longer than the previous five attorney generals’ wait time combined.
Watch Durbin condemn Lynch’s lengthy wait below:
