Obama Opposes Mukasey Nomination
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Printable FormatFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Amy Brundage, 202 228 5511
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today issued the following statement on his opposition to Judge Michael Mukasey’s nomination as attorney general:
“After the dismal performance of the last attorney general, I had hoped that Judge Michael Mukasey would represent a badly-needed change in direction for the Justice Department and the nation. But his testimony before the Senate was stunning.
“While his legal credentials are strong, his views on two critical and related matters are, in my view, disqualifying. We don't need another attorney general who believes that the President enjoys an unwritten right to secretly ignore any law or abridge our constitutional freedoms simply by invoking national security. And we don't need another attorney general who looks the other way on issues as profound as torture. Judge Mukasey's professed ignorance of the debate over the propriety of practices like “waterboarding,” or simulated drowning, as a means of interrogation, was appalling.
“We are a nation of laws, and those laws apply equally to the President of the United States and common citizens. We need an attorney general who understands and appreciates that inviolable principle.
“For these reasons, I will oppose this nomination.”