Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding nominations:
“For someone who campaigned as a moderate and promised to unify our country, President Biden has chosen to staff his Administration with a roster of alarmingly radical or unqualified personnel.
“In recent weeks, the President’s nominees who have made the biggest headlines have been the ones so far outside the mainstream that even a Democrat Senate majority wouldn’t confirm them.
“Like the appeals court nominee who defended a school against a teenage victim of sexual assault.
“Or the traffic safety nominee whose real passion turned out to be extreme environmental regulations.
“Well, this week the Senate is considering yet another slate of radical nominations that are entirely unworthy of confirmation.
“First is the nomination of David Crane, a self-described ‘climate activist’ President Biden would like to serve as Undersecretary for Infrastructure at the Department of Energy.
“Mr. Crane’s nomination is bad news for Kentucky, for coal country, and for any American who enjoys making their own choices about which cars to drive, which products to consume, and how to earn a living.
“This nominee has been outspoken about his so-called ‘green dream’ to force a massive chunk of the world’s economy to go carbon-free in eight years, and then use their influence to ‘compel society’ to follow suit.
“He even observed that Democratic presidential nominees hadn’t made extreme climate policy enough of a priority in their campaigns. In other words, Hillary Clinton – who once bragged that, ‘we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business’ – wasn’t radical enough for David Crane.
“We’re talking about an unabashed top-down social planner. As we’ve learned over the past two years, that’s exactly what the Biden Administration ordered when it handed the keys to American energy policy to the radical left.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Crane is not the only nominee on this week’s agenda with a reputation for wearing his radical liberal sympathies on his sleeve. The Senate will also vote on the nomination of Dale Ho to serve on the federal bench in the Southern District of New York.
“Mr. Ho has described himself – get this, Mr. President – as a, ‘wild-eyed leftist’.
“Let me say that again. President Biden would like a self-identified ‘wild-eyed leftist’ to rule on cases in the largest federal court in the country!
“Mr. Ho’s legal record indicates that this radical sympathy runs deep. This is a nominee who has publicly lamented that, ‘originalism is not a method of constitutional interpretation that can reliably lend itself to progressive outcomes’.
“Imagine that! It turns out that actually following and applying our laws and Constitution as they were written is not a one-way ticket to left-wing utopia!
“And by the way, that should be an argument for the radical left sidelining their bad ideas; not an argument for sidelining the Constitution. Somebody who wants a lifetime appointment as an impartial judge must be committed to putting the rule of law ahead of his personal policy views, not the other way around.
“But Mr. Ho hasn’t limited his public criticism to the basic legal principles that underpin the federal judiciary.
“During the Obama Administration, he railed against the Fraternal Order of the Police for expressing their concerns about a particularly anti-cop Justice Department nominee. He called the F.O.P.’s opposition a ‘disgrace’.
“He’s also taken to attacking members of the Judiciary Committee on Twitter.
“And throughout his career, Mr. Ho has been outspoken in denigrating basic, mainstream efforts to ensure the integrity of American elections.
“He’s likened overwhelmingly popular practices like voter I.D. requirements to ‘a very thinly veiled call for racial profiling’.
“So, Mr. President, let me be absolutely clear: Senate Republicans will not participate in rubber-stamping radical nominees.
“I would urge our colleagues to join me in rejecting each of these unfit nominations this week.”
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