President Obama’s Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch said that being “tough on crime” actually means being tough on black people.

Lynch, currently in Senate confirmation hearings to replace her sorority sister’s husband Eric Holder, expressed some bold racial views at a September 2007 panel at Duke University called “The Court of Public Opinion: The Practice & Ethics of Trying Cases In The Media,” which was convened after the Duke lacrosse rape case, in which three Duke players were falsely accused of sexual assault.

“I guess where you stand depends on where you sit — but even with the statements as a DA I’m going to be tough on crime, there are people who take that and have taken it for years because it has meant for years I’m going to be tougher on African Americans, depending upon the context, depending upon what else is being said in an election, depending upon what other issues are brought out there,” Lynch said.

“So there are times when these statements need further explanation because on the surface they say one thing but people really hear something else, and it’s informed completely by their environment and often their history.”

The Reverend Al Sharpton was instrumental in securing Lynch’s nomination to replace Holder.

Lynch’s suggestion in Wednesday’s confirmation hearing that illegal immigrants have a right to American jobs prompted a tough line of White House questioning from TheDC’s Neil Munro and a non-answer from a White House spokesman.

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