President Obama calls Loretta Lynch confirmation delay 'embarrassing'

Loretta Lynch
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

President Obama is fed up with the congressional stalemate over Loretta Lynch's confirmation vote to be the next attorney general. Despite receiving bipartisan support as the nominee, Lynch has been waiting 160 days to be confirmed — twice as long as the seven previous nominees combined — in a vote delayed by a dispute in the Senate over abortion rights provisions in a bill unrelated to Lynch.

"It's gone too far," Obama said Friday during a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. "Call Loretta Lynch for a vote. Get her confirmed." The president also called the situation "crazy" because Lynch, currently the U.S. attorney for New York, is widely recognized as a qualified nominee. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he will force a vote if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does not do so soon, and presumptive Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has also urged the upper chamber to confirm Lynch.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.