Eric Holder, the current Attorney General, has already said he wants to leave the post, and over 160 days ago, the president nominated his successor. But Republicans, branded “the party of NO,” apparently see political benefits in refusing to confirm the new Attorney General, so Sharpton along with female civil-rights leaders are trying to put pressure on Senate leader Mitch McConnell with a hunger strike.
“As long as the Senate refuses to take fifteen minutes to confirm someone for Attorney General that they have already confirmed twice for U.S. Attorney,” National Action Network and its allies “will do everything in our power to draw attention to this completely unfair and unnecessary delay to vote to confirm Loretta Lynch,” Sharpton, who founded NAN, said in a statement Wednesday.
The group’s executive director, Janaye Ingram, added: “We stand with Loretta Lynch and are so in support of this cause that we are willing to sacrifice our daily meals to impress upon the U.S. Senate that it’s time to call a vote.”
The hunger strike is part of a broader public pressure campaign for Republican leaders to quickly hold a confirmation vote for Lynch, who has been stuck in a nomination purgatory ever since she cleared the Judiciary Committee in late February. Lynch, the current U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, would be the first black woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
