WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House on Monday blasted Senate Republicans for an “unconscionable” delay in bringing President Barack Obama’s nominee for Attorney General Loretta Lynch up for a vote.
“There’s not a single legitimate question that has been raised about her aptitude for this job,” Josh Earnest said at the White House briefing Monday. “Instead, all we’ve seen is a bunch of political obstruction from Republicans that, again, does not — does not speak well of Republicans’ efforts to run the Senate in an effective fashion .”
Earnest was reacting to an interview Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had with CNN on Sunday where he said he plans to put off voting for Lynch’s confirmation until after the Senate passes a human trafficking bill, which contains language related to abortion that Democrats oppose.
“This will have an impact on the timing of considering a new attorney general,” McConnell told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again.”
Earnest characterized the moves on Capitol Hill as yet another example of what he called “inept leadership” on the part of McConnell, saying the GOP leader had failed to gain bipartisan support for a common-sense sex-trafficking measure that Republicans are using to hold up Lynch’s confirmation vote.
“You got to hand it to Republicans, that they’ve taken even a measure as common sense as that and turned it into a partisan controversy,” he said. “That is not a reflection of a flaw in the bill. It’s a reflection of inept leadership.”
As for suggestions Senate Democrats had failed to read the measure before it passed out of committee, and thus didn’t raise concerns over its language on abortion, Earnest deferred to the lawmakers themselves.
The current Attorney General, Eric Holder, will remain in his post “as long as is necessary,” Earnest said.
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, also weighed in on Lynch’s nomination.
“Congressional trifecta against women today: 1) Blocking great nominee, 1st African American woman AG, for longer than any AG in 30 years…” she tweeted. “…2) Playing politics with trafficking victims… 3) Threatening women’s health & rights.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
