Nomination of Vanita Gupta

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I want to touch on two critically important subjects that the Senate is considering today. First, I want to rise in support of Vanita Gupta, President Biden's nominee to serve as the Associate Attorney General, the third highest ranking position in our Justice Department.

I think my good friend, the Senator from Illinois, has already spoken about Ms. Gupta. I want to make a personal note. First, that Vanita is a fellow Virginian. I am proud to say that she and her husband, Chinh Le, are raising their two sons in the Commonwealth. They live in Arlington.

Ms. Gupta is also an outstanding public servant. She served from 2014 to 2017 as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division at DOJ. She led the Division, as the Acting Assistant Attorney General, until 2015.

Since 2017, she has led one of the country's preeminent civil rights organizations--the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights. This means that, if confirmed, Ms. Gupta will be the first civil rights leader in any of the top three positions at Justice.

The sheer depth and breadth of Ms. Gupta's legal and professional experience makes her an outstanding selection to serve as the Associate Attorney General. Perhaps that is why Ms. Gupta's supporters span the political spectrum.

My understanding is that my friend, the Senator from Illinois, has already pointed out some of this broad-based bipartisan support. Let me elaborate on some of that support. Grover Norquist calls her an ``honest broker'' in his endorsement letter.

Let me just state for the record that I have had interactions with Grover Norquist since before I was Governor, over 20 years, and Grover Norquist has never called me anything close to as nice as he called Vanita Gupta as an ``honest broker.''

Mark Holden, the former general counsel of Koch Industries, writes: ``Ms. Gupta is an exceptional lawyer, and among the most talented lawyers I have worked with in my career.''

Ms. Gupta has spent years and years collaborating with people from across the spectrum to promote a more fair and equal justice system.

And let me note for the record, as well, that I have not always agreed with Ms. Gupta. I was very involved in housing finance reform. Ms. Gupta, as chairman of the Conference on Civil Rights, had a different opinion, but I always respected her intellect and her willingness to listen to alternative views and her willingness to really dig into the facts.

With that background as a civil rights leader in the thick of issues around policing, race, and criminal justice reform, she actually led the investigations of police departments in Ferguson, Chicago, and Baltimore.

At the same time, I have a long list of law enforcement groups that are supporting Ms. Gupta's nomination, including the National Fraternal Order of Police. Again, in terms of the FOP, I think in all my career, one time they endorsed me. Again, her receiving that endorsement is different than myself and perhaps even the Senator from Illinois.

Ms. Gupta has also led broad-ranging and robust enforcement and education efforts to combat hate crimes, including the first-ever prosecutions under the newly enacted Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Under her leadership, the Civil Rights Division trained local and Federal law enforcement throughout the country in recognizing, investigating, and proving hate crimes; in educating communities and engaging them in a process of ensuring public safety; and in encouraging better hate crime reporting and data collection.

I would like to close on one other timely credential. As chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I have meticulously chronicled the corrosive effects of disinformation and foreign interference into our elections--something the Presiding Officer is also a national leader on.

Ms. Gupta has been a leading voice for election integrity, thoughtfully and firmly engaging social media platforms to address disinformation on their platforms, as well as voter suppression, hate, division, and violence.

Among the many important roles the Department of Justice has right now, securing our democracy itself is surely near the top of the list.

Vanita Gupta is a person of extraordinary ability. She has the right experience for this role, and I am honored to support her in her nomination today and hope that later today, we will get broad bipartisan support to move forward that nomination.

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