Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared on CNN Friday and attempted to deny criticizing a judicial nominee for being white.
WATCH:
CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked Schumer about comments he made that seemingly attacked a judicial nominee from President Trump for being white.
“Yeah, that was right wing radio who never really tells the truth, distorting what I had said,” Schumer answered. “What I said is this — that Barack Obama had nominated, I think as early as 2013, two people for this seat. And our Republican senators from South Carolina blocked them with holding of the blue slip, which has been a tradition.”
“So this seat has been vacant for a long time, the two people nominated were African-Americans, and I said, ‘Now this fella is white, and we need the bench to have real diversity.”
“The president’s record in nominating people of color, even nominating women to the bench, I think the bench should look like America, and I think most Americans agree with that,” he continued. “And the fact they held up two people for so long and now wanted to get their fellow to come in made no sense, and compounding the injury was the lack of diversity on the bench.
Not much of a denial.
Schumer said Wednesday:
“The nomination of Marvin Quattlebaum speaks to the overall lack of diversity in President Trump’s selections for the federal judiciary. Quattlebaum replaces not one, but two scuttled Obama nominees who were African American.”
“As of February 14th, 83 percent of the President Trump’s confirmed nominees were male, 92 percent were white. That represents the lowest share of non-white candidates in three decades. It’s long past time that the judiciary starts looking a lot more like the America it represents. Having a diversity of views and experiences on the federal bench is necessary for the equal administration of justice.”