"I would think, as we approach the 50th anniversary of Selma, that Republicans should be more sensitive"

A committee vote on Lynch could happen on Friday, pending further holds. On Tuesday, asked about the Republicans and Lynch, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin–the party’s whip–brought up the fact that Lynch was a black woman. 

“I would think, as we approach the 50th anniversary of Selma, that Republicans should be more sensitive about what they’re doing to this woman,” Durbin said.

When pressed by NBC News reporter Frank Thorp on the “implications” he was making, Durbin stood by the claim. “She is an African-American woman who has been nominated for the highest law enforcement position in the history of the United States,” he said. “She’s being held up for no substantive reason. That’s not an implication. That’s a statement. You can’t celebrate civil rights and ignore the reality that one of the most important civil rights milestones, the appointment of an African-American attorney general, is being held up for no good reason.”