Nomination of Vanita Gupta

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, what is it about these nominees Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke that drives some of the Members on the other side of the aisle into a rage? Listen to how they describe them.

The senior Senator from Texas describes Vanita Gupta as a political ``culture warrior,'' slandering and vilifying people. Then, of course, the junior Senator from Texas calls her an ``extreme partisan ideologue.'' ``Radical twins,'' he calls them.

What is it about these two nominees that drives them into such a state of mind that they say these things about individuals seeking an opportunity to again serve our Federal Government?

It is amazing to me that the junior Senator from Texas suggests that they are in the thrall of handlers. Handlers. If you heard the story of the lives of these two women and what they have overcome to be where they are today, the last thing in the world you would use is a reference to handlers. They have defied handlers all throughout their lives--sons of immigrants, daughters of immigrants. Like so many of them, they know they have to work hard to prove themselves, and they have done it time and again.

Vanita Gupta. Can you picture that moment when the civil rights organizations said to Vanita Gupta: We want you to go to Tulia, TX, because something has happened there that looks like a terrible miscarriage of justice. Forty people have been arrested for drug crimes in Tulia, TX, and we want you to go down there, even though they are in jail and they have been convicted, and defend them and try to find a way that they will be released.

That is exactly what Vanita Gupta did. The net result was that they were not only released, but the lawman who had supposedly found them guilty was the one who was discredited and dishonored when it was over, and the Texas Governor--the Republican Texas Governor--acknowledged it with a pardon of these individuals and paying them millions of dollars for what they had lived through. Who led that charge? Vanita Gupta. Was she waiting for a message from a handler? No. She showed extraordinary courage there and throughout her life as an attorney fighting for the civil rights of others and as an attorney representing the Government of the United States of America and the Department of Justice.

When I listen to efforts to discredit her and her professionalism, I think, you haven't read the story. You would know in a second she doesn't wait to hear from a handler. She never has. She has shown exceptional courage and professionalism every step of the way.

Kristen Clarke, the same. Born in an area of New York City that I am sure Senator Schumer knows, in a public tenement type of building, she overcame all the odds. She graduated from law school and served in the Department of Justice.

When the junior Senator from Texas comes and refers to Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke as ``radical twins,'' zealots, ideologues, it is disgusting. It is terrible. It is a terrible reference to a fine life that each of them has lived.

And this notion that somehow they have fooled the Fraternal Order of Police into believing that they really do love police, when, in fact, as the Republicans argue, they just want to take all their money away-- we know better. The fact that Vanita Gupta has the endorsement of every major law enforcement organization puts to rest some of the charges they have made against her.

I can't believe what they are saying about these two nominees, but I think that a majority of the Senate is ultimately going to judge that they are ready to serve this country again and should, and the Department of Justice.

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