Harry Reid: ‘I Won’t Give Up’ On Obama’s Civil Rights Pick Debo Adegbile

FILE - In this April 29, 2009 file photo Debo Adegbile, then an attorney with the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People speaks outside the Supreme Court... FILE - In this April 29, 2009 file photo Debo Adegbile, then an attorney with the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington. Adegbile, President Barack Obama’s choice to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division has failed a Senate test vote and his confirmation is in jeopardy. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told a group of reporters on Thursday he won’t give up on confirming President Barack Obama’s top civil rights nominee, Debo P. Adegbile, who was voted down the previous day.

“I have such high regard for him as a person,” Reid said in his Capitol Hill office. “His life story is really the American dream. Such a modest, really smart man.”

Adegbile, a nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, received just 47 votes on the Senate floor Tuesday, falling short of the 50 needed to move forward. Seven Democrats and every Republican torpedoed the nomination, citing his past as a lawyer for the NAACP, when he defended Mumia Abu Jamal, who was convicted in 1981 of killing a police officer.

Reid switched his vote to ‘no’ in the end, in order to reserve his right to bring up the nomination again. The White House hasn’t withdrawn the nomination. The majority leader said he intends to try again to confirm Adegbile.

“What an injustice,” Reid told reporters on Thursday. “He’s a good, good lawyer. … I’m not going to give up on him.”

Reid said he spent an hour with Adegbile and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) before deciding to bring up the nomination, and they “didn’t do it lightly.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: