In an interview Thursday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee remarked that race and gender are major factors in the treatment of Loretta Lynch’s nomination. The Texas Democrat told MSNBC’s Tamron Hall that the lack of a vote for Lynch, who is tapped to replace outgoing-Attorney General Eric Holder, shows a lack of leadership, while adding that Lynch is “being treated disparately” by the process.
Lee’s comments come on the heels of Sen. Dick Durbin saying Senate Republicans are putting Lynch in the “back of the bus” by withholding her confirmation.
JACKSON LEE: This is very emotional, and it is, from my perspective, a factor in this, a woman, an African-American woman. We don’t step back from that. I think the distinction of what Senator Durbin is saying, and saying it very well is that that individual was on the floor. There was a filibuster, there was a debate. There was a concern.
We don’t have, even the scheduled nomination of Ms. Lynch to be on the floor. Why did it take 131 days? We could have had a filibuster, a debate, or anything. We could have had it weeks ago. We could have had it when she came out of committee, and so the onus and the burden falls on the leadership in the Senate. They have not scheduled her for a vote. We’re outraged about that, and we believe that she is being treated disparately, and we don’t think that that is both appropriate, and we don’t think the Senate is following its appropriate duties, which is the advice and consent. They’re stopping the workings of government by blocking the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America, they can’t step away from that.