Nominations of Vanita Gupta and Lisa O. Monaco

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I echo the sentiments expressed by my colleague from Minnesota, and I rise today in support of the nomination of Vanita Gupta to be Associate Attorney General of the United States. Today, I am focusing my remarks on Ms. Gupta, but I will have some words of support for Kristen Clarke later.

For 4 years, Donald Trump treated the Justice Department like his personal law firm. He ordered that the Department's attorneys drop charges or reduce sentencing recommendations against his friends and cronies. He ordered investigations and prosecutions against his political enemies. He even had the Department step in to defend him against the defamation claim relating to an allegation of rape.

By the end of the Trump administration, the Justice Department's reputation was tarnished and the morale of its employees was lower than at any point since Watergate.

Thankfully, President Biden has named a professional, highly qualified team to lead the Justice Department and to restore its place of prominence and moral authority in following the rule of law.

It is significant that the Senate confirmed Merrick Garland as Attorney General and will shortly confirm Lisa Monaco as Deputy Attorney General with strong bipartisan support.

I am disappointed that Vanita Gupta, a similarly well-qualified nominee, is not receiving the same bipartisan support.

A few weeks ago, I sat in the Judiciary Committee for nearly 2 hours, listening to my Republican colleagues smear Ms. Gupta with lies about her record--lies like that she wants to decriminalize all drugs, that she wants to defund the police, that she is somehow responsible for the production of crystal meth in Mexico.

When Chair Durbin finally called for a vote, not a single Republican supported Ms. Gupta's nomination. As I sat there listening to these lies and smears, I asked myself a question, and I am still pondering that question today: What exactly are Republicans afraid of?

Unlike many of President Trump's nominees, Vanita Gupta is actually qualified to help lead the Justice Department. Throughout her career, Ms. Gupta has shown the strategic acumen, dogged determination, and coalition-building skills necessary to navigate the challenges facing our country.

As a young attorney with the ACLU, she worked to exonerate 38 wrongfully convicted men and women in Tulia, TX. Mostly people of color, these individuals had been convicted of drug crimes based on the testimony of a single undercover police officer and sentenced to prison for periods of up to 434 years.

Ms. Gupta was able to show that the officer was racially biased and had a reputation for dishonesty. She demonstrated that he falsified reports and misidentified defendants. In light of this evidence, the court found that the officer ``may be the most devious, non-responsive law enforcement witness this Court has witnessed in 25 years on the bench in Texas.''

The case was so compelling that then-Texas Governor Rick Perry pardoned 35 of the defendants. It was such a miscarriage of justice that those pardoned individuals ultimately received a $6 million settlement.

Ms. Gupta later went on to lead the Justice Department Civil Rights Division. In this role, she stood up to the rights of transgender students and prisoners, fought discrimination against servicemembers, and defended the right to vote.

From there, Ms. Gupta served as President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights where, among other things, she played a key role in passing the most significant criminal justice reform package in years.

Ms. Gupta's qualifications are borne out in this experience and in the widespread support that she has received. Conservative leaders and longtime Republicans like Michael Chertoff, Grover Norquist, and Michael Steele have praised Ms. Gupta as a consensus builder on critical issues like voting rights and criminal justice reform.

Every major law enforcement organization, including the Fraternal Order of Police and National Sheriffs' Association, has endorsed Ms. Gupta's nomination.

In light of this widespread support, it is tough to take the criticisms I hear from my colleagues on the other side seriously. If Ms. Gupta supported defunding the police or decriminalizing all drugs, how did she manage to get universal support from the law enforcement community? If she is such a radical progressive, why are people like Grover Norquist and the former general counsel and senior vice president of Koch Industries endorsing her nomination?

Republican criticism of Ms. Gupta is also hard to take seriously after they spent the past 4 years--4 years, and I was there--pushing through some DOJ and judicial nominees who were either wholly unqualified, openly supported disenfranchisement of Black Americans, or were even credibly accused of sexual assault.

After 4 years of permissive deference to Donald Trump, it is rich to hear my Republican colleagues attacking and demeaning a strong, smart, and highly qualified woman of color like Vanita Gupta to serve in the Justice Department. Their attacks aren't an exercise of the Senate's constitutional duty to provide advice and consent. It is pure partisan politics at its worst.

President Biden nominated Vanita Gupta to serve as Associate Attorney General because she is the best person for the job, and the Senate should confirm her without further delay.

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