Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) delivered a scathing criticism of President Obama’s recent controversial nominee Debo Adegbile on the Senate floor Wednesday, saying Adegbile’s long defense of unrepentant cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal was "noxious" to our legal system.
Abu-Jamal, then known as Wesley Cook and a member of the Black Panther Party, killed 25 year-old officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. A remorseless Abu-Jamal confessed to the crime and was consequently convicted and sentenced to death. Adegbile, as the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense Fund, became Abu-Jamal’s co-counsel in 2011, with the organization calling Abu-Jamal a "symbol of racial injustice".
President Obama has appointed Adegbile to become Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice.
"Everyone deserves a fair trial and a zealous legal defense, and lawyers aren't personally responsible for the actions of their clients. But lawyers are responsible for their own actions," McConnell said.
"In this case, the nominee inserted his office in an effort to turn reality on its head, impugn honorable and selfless law enforcement officers, and glorify an unrepentant cop killer."
"This is not required by our legal system," McConnell continued, "It is noxious to it."
Executive nominations are usually endorsed or opposed by the senators of the state from which the nominee hails. McConnell noted that both of Pennsylvania’s senators, Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Bob Casey, oppose Adegbile’s nomination.