Butterfield says he’s concerned about votes for AG-nominee Loretta Lynch
North Carolina U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield said Tuesday that he’s concerned that support may be lacking when the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Thursday on whether to send Loretta Lynch’s nomination as attorney general to the full Senate for confirmation.
A month ago, her confirmation was seen as expected. Two weeks ago, Senate Republicans delayed a vote, saying they had more questions.
“We have a nominee who is eminently qualified to be attorney general of the United States, and to deny her an up or down vote in the U.S. Senate would be unfortunate,” Butterfield, a Democrat from Wilson and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in an interview.
Lynch, a veteran prosecutor who is U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is a North Carolina native. She spent the first six years of her life in Greensboro and the rest of her childhood in Durham before she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis is a member of the Judiciary Committee. His spokesman, Daniel Keylin, said on Tuesday that Tillis was reviewing Lynch’s answers to written questions he submitted. Keylin would not say how Tillis, a Republican, would vote.
Butterfield raises concern
Butterfield said he was concerned that 51 Republicans from the House of Representatives wrote to Judiciary Committee members telling them to vote against Lynch.
North Carolina Reps. Mark Meadows and Richard Hudson were among them. Townhall.com, a conservative news and opinion website, reported on the letter and released a copy on Tuesday.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to get an attorney general with impeccable credentials but yet someone from North Carolina to be part of the president’s Cabinet,” Butterfield said.
“She has gone after white collar criminals in New York. She has prosecuted drug conspiracies in New York. I think she has demonstrated the ability to be independent,” he added.
The Republican lawmakers wrote that they were particularly concerned that Lynch would support President Barack Obama’s executive orders granting temporary relief from deportation for some immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“That’s being litigated in the court. She’s not being considered for the Supreme Court. She’s being considered to be a prosecutor. That argument is unpersuasive to me,” Butterfield said.
Tillis exchange with Lynch
Tillis had questioned Lynch in a late January hearing, focusing on the Department of Justice’s efforts to halt voting law changes that Tillis helped lead to passage in North Carolina. The law backed by Tillis and other Republican leaders includes requiring a voter ID. The justice department is suing to stop the law. Tillis is named as a defendant in that case, and he questioned if it was the best use of 10 federal attorneys.
Lynch sidestepped the North Carolina case in her response.
“It’s not something that I’m intimately familiar with,” she said. “I look forward to learning more about it should I be confirmed, and I believe the matter will proceed to court and we will await the results there.”
Tillis then wondered if “we could look at this objectively” and whether she could use “resources of DOJ in the most effective way,” reminding her of a speech she had given a year earlier.
“I think in Janaury of 2014 you said that, ‘People try and take over the statehouse and reverse the goals that have been made in voting in this country,’” Tillis said. “I presume, since I was the person that took over the statehouse, I would be included by reference. And you go on to say, ‘And in my home state of North Carolina (DOJ) has brought lawsuits against those voting rights changes that seek to limit our ability to stand up and exercise our rights as citizens.”
Tillis said he took “heroic” efforts to preserve citizens’ rights to vote. He then moved on to another topic.
(The exchange on voting matters between Lynch and Tillis takes place between about 02:00 and 08:00 on this video.)