A divided Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday moved federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch a key step closer to the attorney general’s office, in a vote that could foreshadow a narrow confirmation to come.
Aided by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and two other conservative Republicans, the GOP-controlled panel approved Lynch’s nomination by a 12-8 vote. The committee’s approval sets the stage for final Senate action sometime in March.
“I think she’s well qualified. I think she’s a decent person,” Graham said. “All things being equal, I think the Democratic president is well within bounds in choosing her. Nobody on our side would have chosen her, but when you win the White House, certain things come your way.”
Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, a former chairman of the committee, and Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake joined Graham and all of the committee’s Democrats in voting for Lynch.
In the full Senate, Lynch will need the support of all 44 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, plus at least five Republicans to win confirmation. For the closest possible margin, she would require four Republicans plus Vice President Joe Biden to cast the tie-breaking vote.
The Republicans voting against Lynch did not question her credentials, experience or fitness for office. Instead, some cited the Obama administration’s actions on immigration, while others insisted their concerns revolve around the need for changes at the Justice Department.
“I do not see someone who is going to recognize that there are legitimate issues that need to be addressed,” said freshman Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who represents the state where Lynch was raised and where her parents still reside, “and we need someone in there that’s going to take that seriously.”
A native of Greensboro, N.C., whose parents now live in Durham, N.C., the 55-year-old Lynch graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. A longtime federal prosecutor, she currently serves as the Brooklyn-based U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
If confirmed, she would be the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
“I really regret the vote on the Loretta Lynch nomination will likely not be unanimous,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., “because if anyone deserves a unanimous nomination, she does.”
President Barack Obama nominated Lynch on Nov. 8 to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, who has had tumultuous relations with congressional Republicans. The lingering tensions were on display during the second day of Lynch’s confirmation hearing in January, where witnesses spent far more time bashing Holder than discussing Lynch.
In what Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee’s senior Democrat, called an “unprecedented” obstacle course, Lynch was also pressed to answer nearly 900 questions in addition to her all-day personal appearance before the committee.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for instance, asked Lynch multiple, detailed questions about Obama’s executive action deferring removal of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States when they were children. Cruz’s Texas colleague, Sen. John Cornyn, tried a different tack, underscoring the prevailing GOP distaste for the man Lynch will succeed.
“Please give me,” Cornyn asked, “three examples of where you disagree with Attorney General Eric Holder’s decisions.”
In response, Lynch offered that she was interested in “fostering a new and improved relationship with this committee, the United States Senate and the entire United States Congress.”