Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come before the Senate today to vote
and to urge my colleagues to vote in favor of confirming Loretta Lynch
as Attorney General.

I disagree with my colleague from Texas. I serve on the Judiciary
Committee, as does the Senator from Texas. I listened to her questions.
I asked her questions. I listened to her answers. In my view, she
passed her senatorial interview. She has picked up support from several
Republicans. She answered questions for 8 hours during her confirmation
hearing and submitted detailed responses to 900 written questions.

What I would like to focus on today are the claims I just heard from
the Senator from Texas that she is somehow lawless.

Let's look through the facts. She has earned the support of Members
of both parties. Do the Republicans who support her for this position
think she is lawless? I don't think so. She has earned the support of
top law enforcement groups and 25 former U.S. attorneys from both
Republican and Democratic administrations.

Now let's start with the obvious. She is supremely qualified for
Attorney General. She has a world-class legal mind, an unwavering
commitment to justice, an unimpeachable character, and an extraordinary
record of achievement.

During her time as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New
York, she tackled some of our Nation's hardest cases, from public
corruption, to civil rights violations, to massive crime rings. She
currently leads the U.S. attorney's office that has been charged with
prosecuting more terrorism cases since 9/11 than any other office in
the country, including trying the Al Qaeda operative who plotted to
attack New York City's subway system. Would you hand this over to a
lawless person? No. You would hand this over--this important job of
going after terrorists--to someone who respects the law, who enforces
the law, not, as my colleague from Texas said, to someone who is
lawless.

This is a concern in my State. Just this week, our U.S. attorney,
Andy Luger, indicted six people--six people--in the Twin Cities area
who were plotting to go back to assist ISIS, to assist a terrorist
group. So I care a lot about having an Attorney General in place who
actually knows how to handle these terrorism cases, who is going to
lead the Justice Department and understands the importance of going
after these cases. Loretta Lynch is exactly the type of tough and
tested leader we need at the Justice Department to lead the effort.

She has been endorsed by leaders ranging from the New York police
commissioner--I don't know if my colleague from Texas considers him
lawless--to the president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association, to the president of the National Association of Chiefs of
Police. Alberto Gonzales says it is time to vote on Ms. Lynch. Rudy
Giuliani says it is time to confirm her. These are not people my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle normally say are lawless.

This is the story of Loretta Lynch and why I think she has been able
to wait out this long process. Loretta Lynch has a lot of patience.
When she was a little girl, she took a test and did incredibly well on
that test. She did so well that they didn't believe she took that test.
They asked her to take that test again, and she scored even higher.
When she was valedictorian of the class, the principal came up to her
and said: You know, this is a little awkward. You are African American,
and we might want another White student to share the honor. That is
what happened to her. She said: All right. That is a woman who has been
through something and can wait this out. She will wait no longer after
today.

The other thing I heard from our friends on the other side of the
aisle--from Senator Cruz--was that somehow she is lawless because she
supported something that every President since Dwight Eisenhower has
supported, has asked their Attorney General to do. The Attorney General
has looked at the legal issues surrounding the issuance of an Executive
order regarding immigration. Every Attorney General since Eisenhower's
administration has advised their President on these issues. The first
George Bush, the second George Bush, Ronald Reagan--with
every single one of these Presidents, there was some kind of Executive
order issued involving immigrants.

I know because we have Liberians in Minnesota who, because of unrest
in their country, have been there for decades under an Executive order,
something that sometimes Congress gets involved and sometimes the
President reissues. But that is one example of a group of people who
have been able to stay in our country legally, work in our hospitals,
work in our industries, and raise their families in this country
because of Executive orders.

So to say that it is sometimes lawless--how lawless for her to
support this simple idea that a President can issue an Executive order.
Of course, we can debate the merits of that. We can talk about the fact
that of course we would rather have comprehensive immigration reform.
That is why I voted it. Of course that would be better, so the
President could just tear up his Executive action. He said he would be
glad to do that.

But the point of this is that every Attorney General in the
Republican administrations since Dwight Eisenhower has supported their
President when they issued an Executive order. So this idea that by
somehow saying that is legal makes this nominee lawless is just plain
wrong.

We look forward to another robust debate on immigration policy.
Comprehensive immigration reform should be debated and passed by
Congress. But Ms. Lynch should be judged on her record and her record
alone. When we look at her record, we should be proud to have her as
our next Attorney General of the United States of America.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

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