WASHINGTON — The Senate is set to vote Wednesday afternoon on the nomination of Vanita Gupta for associate attorney general despite nearly unified opposition from Republicans.
The Senate advanced Gupta’s nomination for the Justice Department’s No. 3 spot in a 51-49 vote earlier Wednesday after Moderate Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, joined all Democrats in voting to end debate on the nomination. Murkowski’s vote meant Vice President Kamala Harris was not needed to break a tie.
Harris could still be needed to do so for the confirmation vote, expected around 2:15 p.m. ET. The final vote comes almost a month after the Senate Judiciary Committee took a 11-11 party-line vote on her nomination, which required the Senate to vote last week to discharge the nomination from committee to allow it to come to the floor.
Gupta, who ran the Justice Department’s civil rights division as an associate attorney general during the Obama administration, will bring a “long overdue perspective” to the department, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.
“Not only is Ms. Gupta the first woman of color to ever be nominated to the position, she is the first civil rights attorney ever to be nominated to the position — the third-ranking official in the Justice Department,” he said. “And just to give you a sense of Ms. Gupta’s commitment to civil rights and racial equity, in her very first case after law school, she won the release of several African Americans who had been wrongfully convicted by all-white juries in Texas.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday that he would “strongly oppose” Gupta’s nomination, arguing that she has “repeatedly amplified left-wing fear-mongering toward judicial nominees and sitting federal judges” and “levied attacks on members of this body.”
McConnell also accused Gupta of employing “the loosest possible interpretation of her oath to deliver honest testimony” during her confirmation process and said her reputation “contrasts sharply” with that of Attorney General Merrick Garland, whom he voted to confirm.
“The White House needs to make a better choice for this key post,” he said. “The Senate should create that opportunity by voting no today.”
President Joe Biden praised Gupta, who serves as head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, in his remarks Tuesday night following the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.
Biden said Gupta and Kristen Clarke, the head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, whom he nominated to run the DOJ’s civil rights division, “are eminently qualified, highly respected lawyers who have spent their entire careers fighting to advance racial equity and justice.”
Gupta and Clarke have the experience and skill “to advance our administration’s priorities to root out unconstitutional policing and reform our criminal justice system, and they deserve to be confirmed,” Biden said.
Many Republicans have voiced opposition to Clarke’s nomination as well.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
