'Sometimes Pretends To Be An Attorney On TV': Chris Coons Laces Into Jeanine Pirro

Forbes Breaking News

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) voiced opposition to Jeanine Pirro, nominee to be U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C.

Transcript

00:00Senator Coons. Thank you, Chairman Grassley. I strongly oppose Jeanine Pirro's nomination

00:04to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. As we just heard from Senator Klobuchar,

00:09senators have the opportunity, the obligation, to review and consider nominees to serve as U.S.

00:15Attorney from their home states. The U.S. Attorney for D.C. is the only U.S. Attorney not scrutinized

00:21by home state senators or apparently the Senate Judiciary Committee. She is not a serious nominee.

00:28She has not practiced law in decades, although she sometimes pretends to be an attorney on TV and

00:34wants to lead what is one of the most important U.S. Attorney offices in our nation. She's called

00:39the January 6th insurrectionists in prison for their actions hostages and she's agreed that the

00:44prosecutors handling January 6th cases should be criminally investigated and now wants to supervise

00:50those same prosecutors. I ask how they could trust her. We should bring Pirro in for a hearing so she

00:56could address these controversial statements because she wasn't vetted by a home state senator

01:01and never got a nomination hearing. Mr. Chairman, I also want to briefly speak to Emile Beauvais's

01:07nomination, which I did not get a chance to address last week. The state of Delaware is in the Third

01:12Circuit Court of Appeals. I served as a clerk on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Most of us were here on

01:18January 6th and we fled for our lives as insurrectionists attempted to stop the peaceful transfer

01:23of power and nearly succeeded. The United States Capitol Police saved our lives and did so by putting

01:29their own on the line. Hundreds of insurrectionists were charged and convicted for assaulting police

01:36officers that day. Mr. Beauvais used to agree with holding these people accountable. He even supervised some

01:42of the January 6th cases himself. But then, President Trump pardoned all the insurrectionists, even

01:48those who assaulted police officers trying to protect us, and he changed course. He worked with Ed Martin

01:54to fire the January 6th line prosecutors. He demanded the names of FBI agents who worked on the January 6th

02:00cases. This is a shameful flip-flop that makes it clear he's willing to do whatever is asked of him,

02:06including attacks on law officers being disregarded. His response to your questions for the record,

02:13Mr. Chair, condemned violence against law enforcement, but then said that some of the U.S. attorneys who

02:19prosecuted those violent insurrectionists were just as bad, calling them equally unacceptable. A remarkable

02:26statement equating those who attack law enforcement with those who took those criminals to court and got

02:31them convicted simply doing their jobs as prosecutors. I care deeply about this nomination. The person who

02:38fills this seat will hear cases brought by Delawareans. And based on what I've seen, I'm not confident my

02:44constituents will get a fair shake in front of Mr. Beauvais, especially if they're challenging something

02:50done by this administration. I urge my colleagues to reject this nomination. Senator Padilla and then

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