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Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Americans' concern about violent crime is the highest it has been in 6 years, and the statistics plainly show why that is. Between 2019 and 2020, the murder rate shot up by the largest 1-year increase in over a century, and the rate has kept on rising.
Nearly 60 percent more law enforcement officers were killed in 2021 compared to 2020. Cities all across America set alltime record highs for homicides last year. My hometown of Louisville, KY, was one of those cities. We also now average more than one carjacking every 48 hours.
Innocent citizens across America know this situation has literally spiraled out of control, but, unfortunately, the Biden administration and Senate Democrats continue to team up and find new ways to go soft on crime. The nomination and confirmation of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court crowns a deliberate effort by Democrats to make the Federal judiciary literally softer on crime. They are specifically intentionally stuffing the Federal bench full of men and women whose starting perspective tilts toward sympathy for criminals rather than victims.
Even the New York Times had to admit this ``concerted push by the Biden administration'' to prefer nominees with ``experience in criminal defense work'' is ``a sea change in the world of judicial nominations.''
The Times continued:
The type of high-profile murder cases handled by some of Mr. Biden's nominees would have been considered disqualifying only a few years ago; now the president, who himself served briefly as a public defender early in his legal career, is actively seeking to name more jurists who have [that kind of] experience.
So, Mr. President, we are not arguing that public defenders ought to be excluded from the nomination process. Clearly, their work is important. Everyone deserves a lawyer, even the most heinous criminals. But the American people are not exactly clamoring for President Biden to dramatically tilt the entire judiciary toward the criminal-friendly perspective--least of all during this historic crime surge.
This week, with a long list of serious problems facing the country, the Democratic majority has decided to spend floor time on another judicial nominee with this one particular background, a second nominee who appeared during her committee hearing to be unfamiliar with a basic concept in trial law, and a third nominee whose pro bono record includes helping sue the New York City government over policing and trying to reverse another person's robbery conviction. So I would urge Senators to oppose these controversial nominees.
I am proud to be one of many Republicans joining a new resolution from Senator Cassidy begging this all-Democratic government to prioritize solutions for the violent crime wave. To start, the administration should stop this willful--willful--campaign to make the judiciary systemically softer on crime. Innocent Americans can't afford it.
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