Blumenthal Votes to Confirm Judge Merrick Garland to be Attorney General
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted in favor of Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to be Attorney General. Garland was confirmed by a bipartisan vote of 70-30.
“Merrick Garland is a man for this moment. His confirmation means a new day dawning at the Department of Justice. Integrity and intellect will be back on top. My vote for him was one of my proudest for any Presidential nominee.”
“During his confirmation hearing, what struck me most was how frequently he committed to seeking input from line prosecutors and career staff. His commitment to the professional excellence and integrity of those thousands of men and women who come to work every day seeking justice and public safety for the American people is of incalculable value.”
The full transcript of Blumenthal remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote on Judge Garland’s nomination is copied below.
I wanted to be here for this vote personally and to make a few remarks because I think this day is a very good one for democracy.
Judge Garland is not only a brilliant lawyer and a widely respected jurist he’s a decent man and a person of consummate character and today, more than at any time in the Department of Justice’s history, character counts.
There is a saying that history doesn't repeat but it rhymes. Judge Garland first went to work in the Department of Justice in the post-Watergate era – one of the low points in the history of this great institution. I met him in those days when I, too, was in the Department of Justice as a United States Attorney for Connecticut and he was beginning a very illustrious career.
We were there at a time when the Department of Justice faced serious questions about its commitment to the rule of law and an Attorney General of the United States had been convicted of serious crimes and a President all but impeached.
Judge Garland is now set to return at a moment when the Department faces a similar moment of reckoning. He is the man for this moment because he embodies those qualities of commitment to the rule of law and to the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice that rise above any particular case or prosecution and any issue of law or fact.
Some of my colleagues have expressed dissatisfaction with his refusal or inability to answer questions to them. Judge Garland owes answers to the American people and those answers will be forthcoming in his actions as Attorney General. Actions speak louder than words.
One of the reasons why I so deeply respect Judge Garland declining to answer some of those very specific questions about individual cases that would be inappropriate for him to answer at this point is that he said he wanted to talk to the career prosecutors, the professionals, the investigators, the lawyers doing the cases before he formed an opinion. His commitment to the professional excellence and integrity of those thousands of men and women who come to work every day seeking justice and public safety for the American people is of incalculable value. He knows those professionals, maybe not individually, but he was one of them as was I.
As to the FBI and the ATF and the all of the agencies that have acronyms, some known and others invisible to the American people, he knows those investigators and prosecutors are really the ones who do the work and he wants to knows their views and wants to know the facts before he makes judgment.
His commitment to the rule of law is especially important at this point in the Department of Justice’s history because he will be a lawyer for the American people, not for the president and not for any special interests.
He comes to this position with a wealth of experience in combating violent extremism. The FBI tells us that white supremacy and violent extremism are the biggest internal threat to our nation today. He is committed to combatting hate crimes that, as he said, “tear the fabric of our society.” And we know that hate crimes are spreading most prominently against Asian-Americans today that he is committed to countering.
He’s committing to preventing gun violence – closing the loop holes that could have averted Sandy Hook and Parkland and other tragedies, and supporting commonsense measures like emergency risk protection orders, universal background checks and safe storage laws.
He's committed to holding police accountable for misconduct and civil rights violations and beginning the very important work of sweeping systematic injustice – racial injustice – from our criminal justice system.
At a moment like this when character counts, I believe that Judge Garland will perform with excellence. He is the right person for this job and the right person for this moment.
Only the reluctance of my colleagues to accept the fact that he can't answer at this point all their questions is the reason they may vote against him. That’s not a good reason and I think they recognize that.
Let me just finish with two points.
First of all, I am hoping that others who are part of the Department of Justice team, nominees, who are awaiting a hearing and confirmation from this committee will be met with fairness and a fidelity to the truth that has been lacking in some of the criticism of them.
I want to submit for the record an editorial that appeared in the February 28th Washington Post regarding the nominations of Vanita Gupta and Kristin Clarke. That editorial finishes with this observation: “In another era, we might have opted not to dignify these attacks with a rebuttal. But in a time when elected officials have been known to embrace lies and conspiracy theories, it’s worth stating sooner rather than later: Both these nominees have serious, distinguished track records as champions of civil rights. For their opponents, that is the real rub.”
We live in a time when conspiracy theories are trying to blame Antifa for the insurrection that attacked the Capitol and try to stop the vote counting and incited by Donald Trump and those conspiracy theories and the falsehoods about Antifa have been thoroughly debunked and denied by the FBI.
An adherence to the truth is important when we are dealing with the rule of law and Department of Justice, especially its top leadership, and I hope that my colleagues will demonstrate that sense of fairness and fidelity to truth, not the falsehoods of conspiracy theorists is as we go forward.
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