North Carolina U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield said Tuesday that he’s concerned that support may be lacking when the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on Thursday on whether to send Loretta Lynch’s nomination as attorney general to the full Senate for confirmation.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.