McCain says Lynch nomination tactics have ‘nothing to do with race’

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has come out vocally against attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch, said Sunday that the delay on her nomination is not racially motivated.

{mosads}”This has nothing to do with race,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“It has everything to do with trying to get the legislation through which would prevent, or help prevent, this horrible issue of sexual trafficking,” McCain said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he won’t allow a vote on Lynch’s nomination until the Senate passes an anti-trafficking bill.

While the measure passed the Judiciary Committee unanimously earlier this year, Democrats have since blocked it over language barring federal funding for abortions.

President Obama chastised Republicans on Friday for holding up the nomination, suggesting they were holding his nominee “hostage,” while Democrats have ratcheted up their rhetoric on the delay.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said last week Republicans are making the first black female attorney general nominee “sit in the back of the bus.”

McCain pushed back Sunday.

“You can’t erase history,” McCain said on CNN, pointing to Democratic filibusters of two other nominees from President Bush to fill positions on the appeals court for the District of Columbia.

“These same Democrats, led by Sen. Durbin, filibustered Janice Rogers Brown, first African-American to get a seat on the court,” McCain said. He also mentioned Miguel Estrada.

Brown eventually rose to serve on the court, though Estrada did not.

McCain has signaled that he would not vote for Lynch because of her support for Obama’s executive actions on immigration.