WASHINGTON — Republicans blocking the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch risk playing into a theme that their opposition to President Barack Obama is based on race, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said.
A failure to confirm Lynch, who would be the first black woman to hold the post, would offer further evidence that race relations have deteriorated as Republicans in Congress have squared off with the first black president, Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, said at a meeting with Bloomberg reporters and editors Wednesday in Washington.
“It would be yet another sign that the chasm we thought was narrowing is in fact just as it was before we entered into this new millennium as it relates to issues of race,” he said. “For many minorities, Latinos and African Americans, it would be just another contemporary sign that we have not moved as far as we had hoped.”
Cleaver’s comments add to a growing debate over race in relation to Lynch’s confirmation. Democrats and civil-rights groups have accused Senate Republicans of racial animus toward Obama and Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in New York City. Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have called such comments inappropriate.