Last week, Cotton refused to confirm the Biden administration's US attorney nominees until he received an apology from Dick Durbin.
It has been nearly half a century since the Senate required a roll call vote on a US attorney nominee. He said that Democrats never held up US attorney nominations despite having the power to do so.
It is hard to imagine that any member of this body would obstruct efforts to confirm these law enforcement officials, given the critical role that these US attorneys play in bringing justice to those who violate federal criminal laws. It could endanger public safety and put millions of Americans' security at risk. It is a stark departure from what has happened before.
Cotton said that he has the right to object to nominees, but that it needs to be a "two-way street" in the Senate.
"If there are no consequences when rules and traditions are broken, we will not have rules and traditions in the future," Cotton said. I said that if the senator from Illinois would express regret for what happened and pledge that it wouldn't happen again, I would be happy to let them move forward.
The Recount is December 7, 2021.
Cotton was referring to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in March on Vanita Gupta, who was nominated by the Biden administration and later confirmed as an associate attorney general at the Department of Justice.
According to The Hill, the Republican attacks on Gupta were interrupted by the chair of the committee, who wanted to force a vote. She was confirmed by a bipartisan vote in the Senate.
While Cotton apologized for disrupting him during the March hearing, he maintained that Republicans forced his hand by attempting to block a vote on Gupta's nomination by using an obscure Senate rule to prevent the Committee from meeting after midnight, The Hill reported.
The Judiciary Committee Democrats had no choice but to call a roll call vote after Republicans used the rule to stop the meeting.
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously confirmed five nominees for US attorneys in Illinois, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Jersey.
