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McCain: I ‘imagine’ AG would be approved by new Senate

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says President Obama’s attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, would probably be approved if Obama waits for the new Senate. 

“Why not wait until you have a new Senate and we can look at this with some time to examine? This is one of the most important positions there is — and I would imagine from my first glance at her credentials that she would get approved by the Senate,” McCain said on Newsmax TV on Monday. 

It is unclear whether Democrats will try to confirm Lynch during the lame-duck session while they still control the Senate or wait until January, when the new Republican majority takes over.

The incoming Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has called on Obama to wait, and some Republicans are looking to press Lynch for her views on Obama’s possible immigration executive action. 

McCain said that the Senate should give some deference to Obama’s choices. 

“I think elections have consequences and therefore you give his nominees the benefit of the doubt,” McCain said. “It doesn’t mean you’re a rubber stamp. But I voted in favor of some of his nominees who I would have never submitted to the Senate but that’s our job, advise and consent.”

Lynch is currently a U.S. attorney in New York.

“This is a very outstanding young woman from everything I can tell,” McCain said.