The GOP almost certainly can’t stop Joe Biden from getting a lineup of leading progressives confirmed to senior Justice Department posts. But Republicans — especially those eyeing the White House — are eager to make the president’s party pay a political price.
Senate Republicans have spent weeks on a messaging binge portraying Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, tapped for high-ranking DOJ positions, as “extreme” and “radical” nominees who will weaken law enforcement. The GOP base is soaking it up, with Fox News host Tucker Carlson showing a keen interest in typically humdrum sub-Cabinet confirmations and focusing several segments on Clarke.
The GOP attacks are making almost no dent with Democrats who view the effort as over-hyped and verging on character assassination, but they’re not the real audience for the campaign against Gupta and Clarke.
Republicans are betting that their voters are paying attention, despite the high likelihood that both women eventually will be confirmed to Biden’s DOJ. As they make the broader case against Biden’s bipartisan brand, Republican senators view the two little-known nominees as an opportunity to bolster their argument that the president is a liberal in centrist’s clothing. And among the loudest complaints about Gupta and Clarke are coming from potential Republican presidential aspirants.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), widely viewed as a 2024 contender, said in an interview that the nominees “would be difficult in places like West Virginia” to explain. “They represent a far-left radical agenda that’s out of step with the American public and certainly with our respective states,” Hawley added. “We’ve got to put that before the voters. That’s what we do. And in 2022, voters will have a chance to weigh in and we’ll go from there, but we have to make the case for that.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), another potential 2024 White House hopeful, described the two nominations as a “test” for Senate Democrats “who tell the voters that they’re moderates.” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has mounted his own separate push to pressure Democrats facing competitive races in 2022 on Gupta, dubbing her a “radical” pick who’d embrace progressive calls to “defund the police.”
The political jostling over the two nominees is the latest round of high-octane partisanship on the Senate Judiciary Committee, home to some of the chamber’s most brutal confirmation battles in recent years. Its roster this Congress includes several Republicans potentially in the mix for the 2024 presidential primary.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, suggested that some Republicans on the panel are “getting sharper and more partisan.” Praising both Gupta and Clarke’s qualifications as well as their confirmation hearing performances, Coons chalked the drama up to “several members of the Judiciary Committee who are looking to score social media points.”
Democrats point to endorsements from law enforcement organizations and outside conservatives in defending Gupta and Clarke from GOP insinuations that the nominees are hostile toward the police. Among the groups backing Gupta is the National Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, while her Republican supporters include Bill Kristol and Grover Norquist. Clarke counts support from the executive director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
In addition, both nominees boast solid liberal establishment credentials. Gupta led the DOJ’s civil rights division under then-President Barack Obama and is on leave as president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a left-leaning advocacy group. Clarke is on leave as head of the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law and is a well-known voting rights advocate. If they’re confirmed to join the Biden administration, Gupta would be the first woman of color to hold the No. 3 spot at DOJ while Clarke would be the first Senate-confirmed woman of color to lead its civil rights division.
Echoing similar warnings issued during Neera Tanden’s failed White House budget office bid, Democrats have suggested that the GOP campaigns to derail Gupta and Clarke are propelled in part by discrimination. The Republican attacks are “essentially part of a smear campaign,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, one that’s “vile and smacks of gender and race bias.”