President Obama’s nominee for attorney general will be up for a Senate vote "within the next few weeks," Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on Sunday’s "Meet The Press" — despite her official nomination being announced nearly 130 days ago.
Lee defended the Senate’s refusal to vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination in the interview with Chuck Todd, saying that “she refused to acknowledge that there are limits to prosecutorial discretion.”
One potential reason for the vote delay is that Republicans are protesting Obama’s use of executive action on immigration reform in November. His action is temporarily on hold due to a Texas federal court order.
“I’m not going to say it's ridiculous,” Lee said about the six-month long delay period. "I do think it’s ridiculous that the president rewrote the immigration code and that he still hasn't provided a full legal explanation of what empowers him to do this."
Lee also touched on his own political conundrum: who to endorse for president in 2016. Three of his close friends in the Senate — GOP senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio — have all formally announced that they are running.
“And I intend to be a supporter of all three of them as much as I possibly can,” he said.
Lee, a former assistant U.S. attorney and one of the founders of the Tea Party movement, fought back against the idea that governors with executive experience are better suited to be president than senators are.
"The other side of that is with someone who has held federal office, you have the opportunity to examine how they view federal issues," he said. "How they view the constitutional authority given to the federal government, relative to the power that a governor wields in a state."