Politics

Giuliani Supporting Loretta Lynch Nomination

Published

9 years ago

March 25, 2015

U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch is seen in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, after President Barack Obama nominated her to be the next Attorney General succeeding Eric Holder. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In recent weeks, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, claimed that President Barack Obama didn’t love America, blamed the president for creating the atmosphere that led to the shootings of two police officers being shot in Ferguson, Mo., and said that he should speak more like the beleaguered Bill Cosby on issues of race.

There is one issue, however, that he is in total agreement with President Obama — Loretta Lynch’s qualification to become the next attorney general.

“Loretta Lynch is more than qualified. She’s over-qualified to be the attorney general,” said Giuliani. “She is as well-qualified as some of the bests attorney generals that we’ve had.”

During a call with reporters last Friday, Giuliani admitted that he didn’t often agree with President Obama, but whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat he is entitled to his choice.

The former mayor and presidential candidate said that the confirmation process has become distorted over time.

“Republicans torture Democrats and Democrats torture Republicans. Who started it? Only God knows and it has now become the Hatfields and McCoys,” said the former New York City mayor.

Giuliani said that he was impressed by the way that Lynch, as a United States attorney in New York, prosecuted cases to protect New York City and, on the few occasions that she had to investigate the city, she was fair.

“She makes decisions on the merit,” said Giuliani. “She’s not a political operative in any sense.”

Lynch, who was first confirmed as a United States attorney during the Clinton administration in 1999 and again during the Obama administration in 2010, has also undergone three FBI background investigations.

Giuliani joined a chorus of lawmakers, law enforcement officials and civil rights leaders urging Senate Republicans to confirm Lynch.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), called the delay in confirming Loretta Lynch political.

“The politics that Republicans have played with her nomination are deplorable and opposition to her nomination is nothing more than a political ploy to once again use any means necessary to show their disdain for President Obama,” said Butterfield. “This is a travesty. We should not deny the president of the United States his choice of a qualified candidate.”

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of 200 civil and human rights groups, said that the Senate Republican majority is using every excuse it can find to delay or obstruct Lynch’s confirmation.

“And the one thing these excuses all have in common is that none of them have anything to do with the nominee herself,” said Henderson. “We know that senators can walk and chew gum at the same time and that this is just the latest turn in what has been the most mishandled and manipulated confirmation process in memory.”

Even Eric Holder, the current attorney general who was held in contempt of Congress on a Republican-majority vote in 2012 over a gun trade investigation, recently quipped that the Republican Congress has delayed the Lynch confirmation because they discovered a new fondness for him.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that when it comes to the Senate calendar, Loretta Lynch was being asked “to sit in the back of the bus,” and that the delay was, “beneath the decorum and dignity of the United States Senate.”

Louis Freeh, a partner of Pepper Hamilton, LLP and a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), agreed that politics is driving opposition to Lynch’s nomination.

“The nomination is being held up for political reasons. Some of the senators didn’t like her answers on immigration,” said Freeh. “The fact of the matter is that she supports the immigration policies of the president. What nominee would come before the Senate for the attorney generalship who did not support the policies of the president? Nobody has made any credible arguments about her competency her independence or her integrity.”

Freeh continued: “You don’t want any attorney general to start his or her tenure there otherwise qualified with that sort of a cloud.”

Giuliani said that the president is entitled to appointments that agree with his point of view and that playing partisan politics over nominations not only impedes the ability of any president to get his job done, but also discourages people from going through this process.

“It is a golden opportunity for my political party to show that we’re going back to the original intent of the framers of the Constitution in the way that the confirmation process should work,” said Giuliani. “Maybe, just maybe, if we have a Republican president two years from now we can appeal to the Democrats to do the same thing.”

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

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2 days ago

April 26, 2024

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MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.