Sen. Dick Durbin (R-IL) attacked Senate Republicans Wednesday for continuing to delay President Obama’s attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch’s confirmation, saying the GOP is asking her to “sit in the back of the bus.”
“This is the first African-American woman in the history of the United States to be nominated to serve as attorney general. It is a civil rights milestone that her name has been submitted,” Sen Dick Durbin argued.
The Senate is currently stalled on a human trafficking bill, because Democrats oppose an abortion provision in that bill. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will not take up the Lynch nomination until it passes the trafficking bill.
Durbin charged Wednesday that the Senate GOP Leadership has decided to “target this good woman” and “stop her from serving as the first African-American attorney general” saying Republicans have “no good reason” to delay her confirmation
“And so Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar,” Durbin said, referencing the Montgomery, Alabama Jim Crow Law that made Rosa Parks a hero of the civil rights movement.
“That is unfair. It’s unjust. it is beneath the decorum and dignity of the United States Senate,” he added.
The Senate is slated to hold more votes on the human trafficking bill this week, and while Democrats are expected to block the bill, McConnell said he will keep bringing it up.
“They’re in a position to prevent us from going forward on the bill if they choose to lock arms and do that, but I’m going to give them a chance to do that on repetitious occasions this week,” he said Tuesday, after reiterating Lynch will receive a confirmation vote once the bill passes.
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