Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) argued that race and gender were “a factor” in the battle over Loretta Lynch’s confirmation on Thursday’s “NewsNation” on MSNBC.

After hearing Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) say “I have voted against African-American women nominees in the past, it is true, and I am not arguing that every member of the Senate should vote for Loretta Lynch simply because she would be the first African-American woman to serve in that capacity. All I’m saying is she deserves the same fair treatment we have given to other nominees for this job” Jackson Lee was asked if it was fair to bring race into the discussion on the Lynch confirmation.

Jackson Lee stated, “this is very emotional, and it is, from my perspective, a factor in this, a woman, an African-American woman. We don’t step back from that. I think the distinction of what Senator Durbin is saying, and saying it very well is that that individual was on the floor. There was a filibuster, there was a debate. there was a concern. We don’t have, even the scheduled nomination of Ms. Lynch to be on the floor. Why did it take 131 days? We could have had a filibuster, a debate, or anything. We could have had it weeks ago. We could have had it when she came out of committee, and so the onus and the burden falls on the leadership in the Senate. They have not scheduled her for a vote. We’re outraged about that, and we believe that she is being treated disparately, and we don’t think that that is both appropriate, and we don’t think the Senate is following its appropriate duties, which is the advice and consent, they’re stopping the workings of government by blocking the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America, they can’t step away from that.”

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