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WATCH: Tom Cotton Hammers Dick Durbin For ‘Repeatedly’ Cutting Into GOP Questioning Of Biden Appointees

   DailyWire.com
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., speaks during a hearing to examine United States Special Operations Command and United States Cyber Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2022 and the Future Years Defense Program, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, March 25, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool via Getty Images

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) ripped Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) Wednesday for interrupting his questioning of Kristen Clarke.

President Joe Biden tapped Clarke to be the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for its Civil Rights Division. She sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Durbin, Wednesday for her confirmation hearing.

Cotton pressed Clarke on her perspective on several police shootings of black men, such as the cases of Michael Brown in 2014 and Jacob Blake in 2020. The GOP senator had asked Clarke if she believed Brown’s shooting by then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson to be justified when Durbin cut off Cotton’s line of questioning to give Clarke “an opportunity to respond.”

COTTON: Was Officer Darren Wilson justified or not in the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014? Vanita Gupta has said he was. Eric Holder has said he was. Three different investigations have said he was. I’m asking you was he or was he not justified in that shooting?

CLARKE: As a private citizen based on the facts that I know – I’m not privy to the details that the federal government may have been privy to in the course of its investigation – as a private citizen there is something that feels unfair and I …

COTTON: The Department of Justice issued an 87-page report. That’s not grand jury sensitive information. That’s not secret. An 87-page report released by Vanita Gupta when she ran the office that you aspire to lead. It concluded that the shooting was justified.

CLARKE: Right. Well, my views …

COTTON: You obviously do not want to take the position that the shooting was justified despite what Eric Holder and Vanita Gupta have said given the fact that you won’t answer the question yes or no. Let’s turn to another case. Was Jacob Blake …

DURBIN: Senator, senator, could you please just allow her an opportunity to respond?

COTTON: Could you stop your pattern of interrupting me repeatedly? This happened the last time we had a hearing, and you called a vote in violation of this committee’s rules.

DURBIN: I’m sorry. I will give you additional time but I would like to give her the chance to complete her answer.

 COTTON: I’ve asked her a simple yes or no question multiple times and she refuses to answer it. Thank you though for your input.

 

At another point in the hearing, Durbin also interrupted Clarke’s questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Cruz pressed Clarke over whether or not she supports defunding police departments like Black Lives Matter activists she has praised. Durbin stepped in with the same complaint he leveled against Cotton.

“Senator Cruz, please allow her to answer,” Durbin said.

“Well, I’m not going to allow her to filibuster,” Cruz responded. “When I ask a question, if she wants to answer a question that I asked, she can do so.”

“She should be allowed — I hope you’ll show respect to the witness,” Durbin said.

“I will show respect to every witness, but we also have limited time, as you’re aware, and you’ve been on this committee long enough to know that witnesses, in avoiding questions, will try to filibuster on different topics,” Cruz replied. “So I’m going to ask questions, and I’m going to expect answers to the questions I ask, and I understand the Chairman wants to jump in and defend the witnesses but that’s your prerogative to try to do so.”

Related: Biden Nominee To Lead DOJ Civil Rights Division Wrote In Letter: ‘Melanin Endows Blacks With Greater’ Abilities

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