Loretta Lynch's attorney general nomination 'is being held hostage,' editorial says
More than four months after Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch was nominated for U.S. attorney general, the Senate has yet to schedule a vote on her confirmation.
The New York Times editorial board doesn’t approve of the delay. Her confirmation, the board said in an editorial, “is being held hostage to last-minute political mischief.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Sunday that a vote on Lynch won’t move forward until Congress acts on a human trafficking bill. Democrats have balked because a fund created by the bill to compensate crime victims would bar the money from being used to pay for abortions.
The Times calls the delay on a vote “beyond irresponsible.”
The Washington Post and a New York Times news story had coverage of McConnell’s explanation for the delay. “It’s not a threat,” McConnell said on CNN’s State of the Union. “We need to finish this human trafficking bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously.”
The Times news story notes the last attorney general nominee to endure a long wait for confirmation was Edwin Meese, who was nominated by President Reagan in 1984. He waited more than a year.
