Heritage Action opposes the confirmation of Vanita Gupta and will include the confirmation vote on our legislative scorecard.
The Senate is soon expected to vote on the confirmation of Vanita Gupta to be Associate Attorney General, the number three position at the Department of Justice. President Biden announced on January 7, 2021, that he would nominate Gupta to the post. She is currently President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and previously served as Acting Assistant Attorney General and head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the Obama administration.
As Associate Attorney General, Vanita Gupta would be a lead advisor to the Attorney General, the nation’s top law enforcement officer for the Federal government. Gupta’s positions on the role of law enforcement in America make it extremely dangerous for her to occupy this role—she is a vocal supporter of efforts to defund the police. During her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gupta claimed she does not support defunding the police. However, when facing the same committee last June, she said, “...it is also critical for state and local leaders to heed calls from Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives activists to decrease police budgets...”
A lawful society depends on police officers, and defunding the police would make Americans less safe, as the Heritage Foundation has pointed out on several occasions:
...current calls by some to defund and dismantle police forces are, to put it mildly, ill-advised, and that should such efforts succeed, supporters will reap what they sowed. Crime and misery will inevitably increase.
Nominating someone for this role who has been an outspoken supporter of defunding the police is yet another example of President Biden caving to the wildest and worst policy positions of the far-Left, despite disavowing them as a candidate and promising unity for the country.
Gupta’s support for extreme policies is not limited to defunding the police. In 2012, Gupta co-authored an article that advocated for the decriminalization of all drugs. She agrees with fellow Biden nominee Xavier Becerra that the Supreme Court was wrong to grant an exemption to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate to the Little Sisters of the Poor. Finally, after the Senate fulfilled its Constitutional responsibility and confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, she refused to disavow court-packing, saying, “nothing is off the table.”
Vanita Gupta is a far-Left partisan activist who supports defunding the police and packing the Supreme Court, among a host of other extreme policies. While President Biden gives lip service to unity and bipartisanship, Gupta’s nomination continues a disturbing trend of bowing to the liberal wing of his party when making nominations for key posts in his administration. Senators should reject Vanita Gupta for this post.
Related:
The Heritage Foundation: George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Would Make Cops’ Jobs More Difficult, Dangerous
Heritage Action opposes the confirmation of Vanita Gupta and will include the confirmation vote on our legislative scorecard.