Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are disagreeing about what the Senate Republicans’ strategy should be regarding their opposition to the nomination of Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General.
On a conference call with the media Wednesday afternoon, Cornyn, who serves as Majority Whip, announced that he would vote against Lynch’s nomination.
“I will oppose that nomination,” said Cornyn. “While she has an impressive record as United States Attorney, as you know, she will become the chief advocate for the President’s policies as Attorney General, and her testimony expressing support for the President’s unconstitutional executive action, and for her support for a number of the President’s other policies, make it impossible for me to vote for her nomination.”
Cruz has also publicly stated his opposition to Lynch’s nomination, but is taking it one step further. He is advocating for Republican Senators to not even allow the vote, to block Lynch’s nomination until Obama abandons his planned executive amnesty, according to a report by Politico on Tuesday.
As Breitbart Texas reported last November, Obama announced he would enact sweeping immigration reforms by executive order, granting millions of illegal immigrants relief from deportation. The president’s plan drew howls of outrage from Republicans, and a lawsuit filed by a Texas-led, multi-state coalition was filed a few weeks later.
“For several months now, I have called on the Senate majority leader to halt confirmations of every nominee executive and judicial, other than vital national security positions, unless or until the president rescinds his unconstitutional amnesty,” Cruz told Politico. “We have an opportunity in front of us right now with Loretta Lynch — a nominee for attorney general — who has fully embraced and flat-out promised to implement the unconstitutional amnesty.”
Republicans must use “every procedural tool” to stop Obama’s executive amnesty, said Cruz, and called blocking Lynch’s nomination “a concrete and definitive step we can take right now, using the tools that the Constitution gives Congress to rein in the president’s lawlessness.”
Cornyn, on the other hand, said that he did not support Cruz’s strategy, as reported by the Dallas Morning News. “I don’t think they should be coupled together, no,” he said, explaining that delaying the vote would mean extending the time that Holder, who has faced harsh criticism from Republicans for a long list of scandals, would be in the office.
In past interviews with Breitbart Texas, Cornyn has characterized his divergence with Cruz over similar issues as disagreements over “tactics” not principles, and has expressed his belief that now that the Republicans have regained control of the Senate, they need to prove to the American people that they are “able to govern,” by moving forward with the business of the Senate and passing a conservative agenda.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.
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