Cornyn: Deputy AG Nominee “A Person of Utmost Integrity”
Today on the Senate floor, I discussed Rod Rosenstein, the President’s nominee for Deputy Attorney General and Senate Democrats’ hypocritical demands that he appoint a Special Counsel if confirmed.
Mr. Rosenstein has spent his career serving the Justice Department and presidents of both political parties. President Bush appointed him to be a U.S. Attorney and so did President Obama.
When the Obama Administration needed a prosecutor of the utmost integrity to investigate national security leaks that looked highly political, they turned, you guessed it, to Rod Rosenstein.
The fact of the matter is our Democratic friends have a short memory when it comes to the Obama Justice Department, one of the most politicized Justice Departments in American history.
Loretta Lynch, who privately met with President Bill Clinton while her department was investigating his wife's e-mail scandal, she never recused herself from the matter.
And then there was Attorney General Holder, who to my knowledge, was the first Attorney General ever held in contempt of Congress because he refused to cooperate with our legitimate oversight responsibilities when it came to Operation Fast and Furious. Well, he never recused himself and never appointed a special counsel.
Compare Attorney General Sessions, who did what he believed was the right thing to do. He recused himself when there was even a suggestion that he might not be able to be impartial, and he made that commitment from the beginning, well before he was confirmed. And he stood by that promise last week.
Attorney General Sessions' integrity is intact, and he did the right thing. But Loretta Lynch didn't, Eric Holder didn't, and for our colleagues to now suggest that Attorney General Sessions not only should recuse, but he should resign, is beyond outrageous.