Sen. Ted Cruz, in a editorial published in
Politico magazine, has called testimony by Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch "breathtaking and brash" and is continuing to urge his colleagues not to approve her to replace Eric Holder, saying she will "impose no limits on the president whatsoever."
Cruz, furious over answers Lynch gave at her confirmation hearing in response to President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration, as well as other legal issues, said Senate Republicans have two paths to rejecting her.
"First, if every Senate Republican on the Judiciary Committee votes no, the nominee will be rejected. Alas, to date, two Republicans have said publicly they will vote yes, and a third has strongly suggested he will as well," the Texas Republican wrote.
"Second, regardless of where the committee votes might be, Republican Leadership could simply decide not to report the nomination to the floor. If Leadership did so, the nomination would be rejected — and there is no procedural mechanism for Democrats to change the outcome," he said.
Cruz, in an exclusive interview Monday with Newsmax's John Bachman on "America's Forum," registered disappointment that Lynch could not tell senators how her tenure as attorney general might differ from policies set forth by Holder, whom he called "the most partisan attorney general we have ever seen."
"Unfortunately, Ms. Lynch, in the entire course of the hearing, refused to acknowledge a single limit on the president's authority under the Constitution," Cruz told Newsmax.
He added: "If leadership brings it to the floor, the Republican Senate will have put in place an attorney general who will continue the lawlessness and abuse of power of President Obama. That will be a travesty and an abdication of her responsibility."
Cruz, in his op-ed, noted that some of his colleagues had argued that if Lynch is rejected, Holder will still remain in office.
"It is true that Holder has abused the office, turning a Department of Justice that had built a long bipartisan tradition of impartially enforcing the law into effectively a partisan arm of the Democratic Party. And he has repeatedly ignored the law and the Constitution, so much so that he is the only attorney general in history to be held in contempt of Congress," Cruz wrote.
"But Holder's lawless behavior occurred after he was confirmed. It is altogether different for the Senate to confirm a nominee who tells us ahead of time she will ignore the law. If the Senate does so, we are complicit in the lawlessness."
Dozens of House Republicans, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged their Senate colleagues to block Lynch's nomination,
Townhall reported, as a vote has been delayed over responses to written questions not being turned in on time.
"We appreciate Ms. Lynch for her many years of outstanding service to our nation. Nonetheless, having observed her nomination hearing testimony, we can only conclude that she has no intention of departing in any meaningful way from the policies of Attorney General Eric Holder, who has politicized the Department of Justice and done considerable harm to the administration of justice," the letter signed by 51 House Republicans said.
They added: "Our larger concern is with Ms. Lynch's apparent unwillingness to stand up to the President and his unconstitutional efforts to circumvent Congress and enlarge the powers of his office."