Nadler blasts GOP over Lynch hearing

Rep. says gun violence bigger issue than Clinton emails

July 13, 2016 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler says Congress should be focusing on solving the issue of gun violence. Photo courtesy of Nadler’s office

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U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, decried Republican concerns over Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and sought to turn lawmakers’ attention at a Capitol Hill hearing toward the issue of gun violence in America.

Nadler (D-Manhattan-parts of Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst) called gun violence an epidemic and charged that Congress has not taken action to address the issue, despite the fact that there are more than 33,000 gun-related deaths every year in the U.S.

Nadler spoke out during a hearing Tuesday in which U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch faced questioning from Republican members of the Judiciary Committee on her decision not to indict the former secretary of state over her use of a private server for her emails during her days at the State Department.

Lynch refused to offer the committee details on the investigation into Clinton’s email practices.

Nadler did not hide his frustration with the line of questioning from GOP lawmakers at the hearing.

“I am sure that many of my Republican colleagues will spend their time discussing the overhyped matter concerning Secretary Clinton’s emails. But I am going to focus instead on more important issues facing this country,” Nadler said.

“Exactly one month ago today, a lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others in an LGBT nightclub in Orlando. In 2016, there were 229 mass shootings, defined as shootings in which at least four people are shot. As you know, every day, on average, nearly 300 Americans are shot in murders, assaults, suicides, suicide attempts, accidents and police actions. We have held, of course, zero hearings on gun violence,” Nadler said, blasting the GOP.

Another Brooklyn lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Canarsie-parts of Coney Island-Queens) also criticized the GOP at the hearing, according to USA Today.

“I have great respect for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but we are in the midst of a gun violence epidemic here in America,” USA Today quoted Jeffries as saying.

Jeffries called the Lynch hearing a “fishing expedition.”

But U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said it was important to question Lynch on the Clinton email scandal.

“If Attorney General Lynch doesn’t want to answer questions about the investigation, then she should have appointed a special prosecutor at the start of the investigation. Instead, she never even sought to recuse herself, despite the fact that Secretary Clinton is the wife of her former boss, President Bill Clinton,” Goodlatte (R-Virginia) said in a statement he issued after the hearing.

Lynch was appointed a federal prosecutor by Bill Clinton when he was president.

“The American people deserve transparency about this investigation,” Goodlatte stated.