Al Sharpton Launches Hunger Strike For Loretta Lynch Confirmation
The National Action Network (NAN), founded by Reverend Al Sharpton, is staging a hunger strike along with female civil rights leaders until Loretta Lynch's confirmation vote is confirmed.
According to the Washington Post, both parties are encouraging the Senate to act promptly and finally put an end to a process that has lasted for more than five months.
The news of the delay comes after Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said that the Senate would be primarily focusing on legislation regarding Iran before focusing on a sex trafficking bill that Republicans have connected to Lynch's confirmation process. While the bill itself has nothing to do with Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Republicans say that they will not agree to bring up the confirmation for a vote until it is finally passed.
One figure who has a strong opinion on the massive confirmation delay is President Obama. During a news conference on Friday with the Italian prime minister, he called the indolence a "crazy situation."
"A woman who everybody agrees is qualified, who has gone after terrorists, who has worked with police officers to get gangs off the streets, who is trusted by the civil rights community and by police unions as being somebody who's fair and effective, and a good manager... has been now sitting there longer than the previous seven attorney general nominees combined," he said.
"What are we doing here?... Enough... Call Loretta Lynch for a vote. Get her confirmed," he said. "Put her in place. Let her do her job. This is embarrassing, a process like that."
President Obama nominated Lynch last November to replace Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., making her the first Black woman to be nominated for the position.
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(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
