The Senate approved the appointment of Vanita Gupta as co-attorney general on Wednesday, despite widespread concerns from the IDP that she is unfit for the No. 3 spot in the justice department.
The vote was 51 to 49. Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to join all Democrats in supporting Gupta’s confirmation.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., applauded Gupta’s affirmation as ‘very good news for the forces of equality and justice in the country’.
“Having someone with such a background in civil rights at this time in American history is so important and so vital to the country,” Schumer said immediately after the vote. “And I’m so glad that the Senate has now approved her and that she can do her important work, including dealing with the systemic bias we’ve seen in the police and in law enforcement across the country.”
Gupta was one of President Biden’s more controversial nominees given her history of anti-Republican rhetoric and the GOP’s concern that she supports a left – wing agenda that disregards police departments, ends qualified immunity for the police and her past support for the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs.
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Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, accused Gupta on Wednesday of lying to the Senate about her previous positions and her ‘radical record’.
“Unfortunately, I believe that Ms. Gupta will be a clear and present danger to the American people if she gives the muscles and power of the Department of Justice and the entire federal government of the United States of America,” Cornyn said in ‘ a long speech on the floor speaking out against the nomination of Gupta.
Vanita Gupta, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, testified before a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC, USA, on Wednesday, June 10, 2020. (Photographer: Mandel Ngan / AFP / Bloomberg via Getty Images )
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During her confirmation hearing, Gupta said she regretted the “harsh rhetoric I have sometimes used over the past few years,” and apologized for “the kind of crude language I have used in the past.”
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As for her attitude towards law enforcement, she denied that she supported the defund movement.
This position is in contrast to the evidence Gupta gave to the committee in 2020 after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks, which took place during police meetings. Floyd’s death in particular led to nationwide protests and called for police reform, marked by the leftist movement to defend police departments – and in some cases abolish them.
“While changes to the front-end systems are important, it is also critical that state and local leaders heed calls from Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives activists for the role of the police budget and its scope. and reducing responsibility of the police in our lives. ”Gupta wrote.
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Gupta claims that it was said as a representative of her organization, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Was a big supporter of Gupta. During a committee meeting, he noted the huge support she received from law enforcement officials and associations, such as the National Fraternal Order of Police.
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Durbin dismissed Republican criticism as “unfounded smears” while viewing what he said was Gupta’s “commitment to building consensus and bridging biased and ideological gaps.”
“Virtually every major law enforcement group supports Vanita Gupta,” Durbin said Wednesday. “You would not know what you would do if you heard on the floor that she wants to legalize all drugs and take money away from the police. Those simplistic statements believe the truth.”