Loretta Lynch is pictured. | Getty

Senate confirms Lynch as attorney general

Her nomination became a broader proxy war over Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

Updated

The Senate confirmed Loretta Lynch to be the next U.S. attorney general on Thursday, ending months of acrimonious debate and installing a black woman as the nation’s top law enforcement official for the first time in history.

Lynch’s nearly six-month nomination drama was fraught with controversy — mostly unrelated to the veteran federal prosecutor from Brooklyn or her track record. Few, if any, senators challenged Lynch’s qualifications, but her legal endorsement of President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration triggered a wave of Republican opposition.

Moreover, the lengthy delay between her nomination and eventual 56-43 confirmation vote — a delay prompted by a Senate-created drama over a human-trafficking bill — stoked allegations from Democrats, particularly black lawmakers in the House, that the historic lag had racial overtones. Lynch was nominated by Obama in November.

Still, the final margin of her confirmation vote was wider than expected. For a few weeks, only five Republicans had said they would support her. Two more declared their support right before the vote, and 10 GOP senators ended up casting their ballots in her favor, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Today, the Senate finally confirmed Loretta Lynch to be America’s next attorney general – and America will be better off for it,” Obama said Thursday. “Loretta has spent her life fighting for the fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy.”

Once she is sworn in, Lynch will replace Eric Holder, who has led the Justice Department since the beginning of Obama’s first term and developed a toxic relationship with congressional Republicans — with the GOP-led House even holding him in contempt in June 2012. Holder had pledged to stay in his job until his successor was confirmed, which took longer than most had imagined.

“I have serious concerns about the current attorney general, who has stated that he will stay until a new attorney general is confirmed,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who waited until Thursday to announce his support for Lynch. “No one disputes that Ms. Lynch is well-qualified.”

The GOP-led Senate cleared Lynch’s nomination through a procedural vote, 66-34, late Thursday morning. Under new rules pushed through unilaterally by Senate Democrats in November 2013, she needed only a simple majority, rather than 60 votes, to clear a filibuster. The comfortable margin on the procedural vote was a way for Republicans not to validate the Democrats’ controversial rules change — which the GOP vehemently opposed.

Still, forcing the Lynch nomination to cloture breaks new ground: All previous attorney general nominees have gone straight to a confirmation vote, according to the Senate Historical Office. In fact, her wait was the longest since the Reagan administration, when it took 13 months for Ed Meese to be confirmed — primarily because of ethical questions surrounding his nomination.

Senate Democrats bear some blame for the delay in the Lynch’s confirmation process. They could have worked on her confirmation during their final weeks of Senate control after losing the majority, but instead chose to push through judicial nominees — who have lifetime appointments.

Aside from McConnell and Portman, the Senate Republicans who supported Lynch were: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mark Kirk of Illinois.

Some recent speculation had centered on Cochran as a potential vote, in part because he owed his victory over a conservative challenger last June to black voters in Mississippi who backed Cochran in the state’s open primary. And McConnell, the top Senate Republican, kept his cards close to the vest for weeks on whether he would support Lynch.

“I am hopeful that Ms. Lynch will use her lengthy professional experience and skills to provide the new leadership, reform, and improved relations with the Congress that the Department sorely needs,” McConnell said in a statement after the vote.

Senators such as Ayotte, Johnson, Kirk and Portman are up for reelection next year and are top targets for Democrats.

“Ms. Lynch is a well-respected U.S. attorney with a proven record and significant experience handling difficult cases,” said Ayotte, who announced her support on Thursday. “After meeting with her and reviewing her qualifications, I believe she is clearly qualified and has the necessary experience to serve as attorney general.”

As her nomination languished in the Senate this year, lawmakers traded increasingly sharp rhetorical attacks, including Democratic accusations that the delay was racially motivated. Underscoring the historic nature of her nomination, black leaders on and off Capitol Hill launched an intense lobbying effort in the final weeks before she was confirmed, urging undecided Republicans to back the veteran prosecutor.

Lynch’s track record includes two stints as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York where she handled cases involving terrorism, police brutality and public corruption. Lynch, the daughter of a Baptist minister, set out in December to charm senators through private, one-on-one meetings, and some Republicans — including those who ultimately opposed her on Thursday — even came away from the sit-downs inclined to support her.

Her father, the Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, attended her confirmation hearing and committee vote, and was on hand again Thursday in the Senate chamber to watch his daughter become the next U.S. attorney general.

But Lynch’s nomination became a broader proxy war over Obama’s provocative executive actions on immigration, which would shield more than 4 million immigrants here illegally from being deported and grant them work permits. Those orders have been temporarily halted by a federal judge in Texas, but are being appealed.

Lynch’s confirmation hearing in January became a referendum on Obama’s immigration actions and many GOP senators said they could not support Lynch after she testified that she believed Obama’s actions were legal.

“We have a nominee who has told the United States Senate she is unwilling to impose any limits whatsoever on the authority of the president of the United States in the next 20 months,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who had worked to whip up opposition against Lynch and to block a vote. “We are sadly going to see more and more lawlessness, more recklessness, more abuse of power, more executive lawlessness.”

Cruz ultimately skipped the confirmation vote.

She cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 26 and has waited for a full floor vote since, while the Senate fought over an abortion-related provision in the trafficking legislation — a bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said lawmakers would need to finish before moving on to Lynch.

“I guess I was naïve in thinking my Republican colleagues would treat Loretta Lynch with the dignity that she and her office deserve,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday morning. “Perhaps my mistake was forgetting that for Republicans, this isn’t about Loretta Lynch. It’s about President Obama.”

After weeks of partisan spats, the Senate struck a compromise on the abortion language and passed the bill unanimously on Wednesday.

“I hope in lieu of an apology from the Senate, we will at least on a bipartisan basis give this wonderful nominee a chance to serve her nation in a new capacity and not burden her with political attacks,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday. “It’s a huge agenda, but she is extraordinarily qualified.”