Vanita Gupta: Biden’s associate attorney general’s candidate confirmed after Lisa Murkowski qualified

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Vice President Kamala Harris was available for a procedural vote Wednesday morning in case it was necessary for a possible 50-50 tie, but her vote was not necessary after Murkowski, a moderate Alaskan Republican, broke up. with his Republican colleagues to support Gupta.

With her confirmation, Gupta will be the first woman of color to be an associate attorney general, joining Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco as No. 3 Justice Department official.

Murkowski explained her support for Gupta on the Senate floor, saying she was concerned about some of Gupta’s statements, but decided to support his confirmation after a lengthy conversation with the candidate.

“I asked him blankly,‘ Why do you want this? Is it worth it? “Because it’s clear that this has been very hard for her as a candidate,” Murkowski said. “And she paused and thought for a moment, and talked about how she feels called to serve in a very personal way that I found shocking.”

“I’m going to give the advantage of the doubt to a woman who I think has shown throughout her career that she is deeply committed to justice matters,” Murkowski said.

Republicans were almost entirely unified in their opposition to Gupta, who headed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration. They have argued that Gupta was a “radical” candidate and have accused her of changing her positions on issues such as drug legalization and police funding. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Wednesday that Gupta has “a history of surprisingly radical positions.”

“He has imposed attacks on members of this body and, during the confirmation process, has used the weakest possible interpretation of his oath to give honest testimony,” McConnell said.

But Democrats have accused Republicans and outside conservative groups of running a defamation campaign to try to block Gupta’s nomination, pointing to his long history of supporting police groups for being the No. 3 Justice Department.

Vanita Gupta, nominated as associate attorney general for U.S. President Joe Biden, speaks during a confirmation hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March.

“Ms. Gupta is not only the first woman of color to be nominated for the position, but she is the first civil rights lawyer to be nominated for the position, the third official in the Department of Justice,” said the leader of the majority of the Senate. Chuck Schumer. “This is shocking, really. We have never had a former civil rights lawyer act in such a prominent position in such a prominent position in the Department of Justice. Only in that sense would Ms. Gupta bring a long-awaited perspective to our federal law enforcement agency “.

Prior to the final vote on Gupta’s confirmation, Illinois Senate President Dick Durbin and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn took part in a lengthy debate over the nomination and statements of Gupta. Gupta on the legalization of drugs, emphasizing the contention of the vote.

Biden cited the nominations of Gupta and Kristin Clarke, his candidate to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, in his speech Tuesday after the verdict of the Derek Chauvin trial, saying “they would root out the unconstitutional police and reform our criminal justice system “. in the Department of Justice.

While Harris didn’t have to vote on Gupta’s nomination, it may be put into action for the president’s candidates soon, even later Wednesday. Several candidates who will head for the floor soon, including Clarke and Colin Kahl, Biden’s choice to be head of Pentagon politics, have faced stiff opposition from the Republican Party. A vote is scheduled to unload Kahl’s nomination from the Armed Services Committee later Wednesday.

Harris ’role as a tiebreaker in the Senate is still likely to be a constant reality for the vice president in a Senate uniformly divided 50 to 50 along the party line. Harris has so far cast four tiebreaker votes in the Senate, including during the February “vote” on the Senate budget resolution.

Gupta’s confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee was controversial and there was a procedural dispute during last month’s vote on his nomination to the committee. Republicans accused Democrats of cutting the debate to force the vote, while Senate Justice President Dick Durbin said he was forced to do so only because Republicans would invoke the “two-hour rule.” of the Senate in an effort to prevent the vote from taking place. .

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said last week that he would leave all U.S. attorney nominations from Democratic states to the Judiciary Committee as compensation for the vote.

This story and title have been updated to include additional news.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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