Loretta Lynch has been sworn in as the first black woman U.S. Attorney General. Before this, Texas Senator Ted Cruz was the one member to miss actually the confirmation vote.
He didn’t miss the grandstanding part. Last Thursday, Cruz gave a passion-filled speech in opposition of Lynch’s nomination.
“Bringing in a new Attorney General should be turning a positive page in this country, but unfortunately the answers that Ms. Lynch gave at the confirmation hearing, in my opinion render her unsuitable for confirmation as Attorney General of the United States,” he said.
And he also said this: “In my view, the obligation of every Senator to defend the Constitution is front and center why we are here. 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, we are sadly going to see more and more lawlessness, more recklessness, more abuse of power, more executive lawlessness. Now more than ever, we need an Attorney General with the integrity and faithfulness of law to stand up to the President.”
Isn’t it his obligation to also not miss the vote?
According to the National Journal, Cruz was there for the earlier Lynch vote, a move to invoke cloture, which would then allow the Senate to take a final vote to either confirm or deny Lynch her new job at the Justice Department.According to Cruz’s people, the cloture vote was the only one that matter.
One of Cruz’s operatives told BenSwann.com, “Senator Cruz has been adamantly opposed to Lynch and voted twice against her nomination. (1) In the Judiciary Committee (2) On the floor during the cloture vote. During the cloture vote, Republicans broke their campaign promises and supported Lynch. She had 66 votes and only needed 51 to pass on the final vote. Senator Cruz had a prior commitment back in Texas and didn’t want to miss it. Sen. Cruz voted against cloture which was the most important vote, once invoked, her confirmation was guaranteed. Sen. Cruz led the charge to oppose her nomination, in interviews, op-eds and a floor speech today. Those responsible for her confirmation are the ones who voted for cloture.”
But many conservatives are still upset that Cruz didn’t vote.
S.C. Rep. Jonathon Hill (S.C. District 8) went to Facebook responding to Cruz saying, “Dude, do your job, or resign and let someone else who cares more about your legislative responsibilities do it.”
Do you care that Cruz missed this vote in favor of going to Texas for an alleged fundraiser? Do you think politicians spend too much time campaigning and not actually doing their job? Please comment below.