Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, hugs attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch at Lynch’s confirmation hearing Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — Loretta Lynch faced down terrorists, traffickers and drug lords during her tenure as U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York. The experiences served the attorney general nominee well in front of a Senate committee and dozens of camera lenses at her confirmation hearing Wednesday.
While the Judiciary Committee members asked her difficult questions about some of the Obama administration’s more controversial decisions, Lynch had strong support in the audience and among members of the committee.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, outspoken Democratic senator from Lynch’s home state of New York, drew laughter from the audience when he said the nominee “has earned a reputation for keeping her head down and avoiding the spotlight — just like me.”
The spotlight shone directly on Lynch, though, who was calm and poised as senators grilled her about her views on immigration, the IRS scandal, and marijuana legalization, among other topics.
Lynch, 55, was appointed U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York by then-President Bill Clinton in 1999, and again by President Barack Obama in 2010 after working in a private practice for several years. She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate both times.
As she faced the committee Wednesday, Lynch was accompanied by several members of her family, whom she introduced at the invitation of Chairman Chuck Grassley. She noted particularly the influence of her father, fourth-generation Baptist preacher Lorenzo Lynch.
“My father…opened his Greensboro [North Carolina] church to those planning sit-ins and marches, standing with them while carrying me on his shoulders,” Lynch said. “I still stand on my father’s shoulders, as well as on the shoulders of all those who have gone before.”
The line to enter the room before the hearing began wound around the corner of the Hart Office Building. It was full of Lynch’s supporters. Once in the room, audience members pulled out cell phones to snap pictures of the nominee as she entered.
In the crowd were dozens of women in crimson and cream, the colors of the African-American sorority Delta Sigma Theta. The sorority, which has three members in the U.S. House, will also claim the first female African-American attorney general if Lynch is confirmed by the full Senate. Lynch helped found a chapter of Delta Sigma Theta at Harvard with Sharon Malone, wife of current attorney general Eric Holder.
Many senators were complimentary. Sen. Dianne Feinstein characterized her demeanor as a combination of “steel and velvet,” while Schumer described her as an “eminently qualified law enforcement professional, first-rate legal mind, and someone who is committed in her bones to the equal application of justice for all people.”
Witnesses scheduled for Thursday, including ex-CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who is seeking $35 million in damages from the government for allegedly hacking her computer, are expected to be harder on Lynch. On Wednesday, though, her audience seemed mostly supportive.
