Obama lashes out at Senate after Republicans and Democrats squash DOJ nominee who once defended a COP-KILLER

  • Debo Adegbile helped overturn Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner
  • The president wants him to lead the DOJ's office that deals with racial discrimination
  • Abu-Jamal's defense painted the African-American convict, not his white patrolman victim, as the victim of a racist courtroom lynching
  • Obama called the vote a 'travesty' in a biting statement fired off so quickly that the White House misspelled Adegbile's name
  • Eight Democratic senators voted 'no' including Majority Leader Harry Reid, who switched his allegiance in order to give political cover to vulnerable liberal incumbents facing tough re-election fights

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 14:18 EST, 5 March 2014 | UPDATED: 17:21 EST, 5 March 2014

President Obama is going to the mat to defend his controversial nominee to lead the Justice Department's civil rights division – a lawyer who once helped defend a notorious cop-killer – calling Republicans' efforts to block him a 'travesty.'

Debo Adegbile, who once participated in the appeals process for convicted murdered and liberal cult hero Mumia Abu-Jamal, failed to win enough Senate votes to proceed to a final determination on his nomination.

Vice President Joe Biden was on hand to cast a potential tiebreaking vote, but the 47-52 tally included 'no' votes from eight Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, effectively killing the nomination.

The White House fired off a scathing statement from the president so quickly that it misspelled Adegbile's name.

Debo Adegbile, now President Obama's nominee to lead the DOJ's civil rights division, led the litigation program of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund when it asked the Supreme Court to void the death sentence of a cop-killer

Debo Adegbile, now President Obama's nominee to lead the DOJ's civil rights division, led the litigation program of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund when it asked the Supreme Court to void the death sentence of a cop-killer

Mumia Abu-Jamal, now a cult hero among death penalty opponents on the political left, escaped execution after Adegbile successfully argued that racial bias affected his jury selection

Mumia Abu-Jamal, now a cult hero among death penalty opponents on the political left, escaped execution after Adegbile successfully argued that racial bias affected his jury selection

The vote, Obama said in that statement, was 'a travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks against a good and qualified public servant.'

'As a lawyer, Mr. Adgebile [sic] has played by the rules,' Obama insisted. 'And now, Washington politics have used the rules against him. The fact that his nomination was defeated solely based on his legal representation of a defendant runs contrary to a fundamental principle of our system of justice.'

The White House press office later sent reporters a corrected version of the president's comments.

Reid's defection to the GOP side wasn't the only unusual feature of Wednesday afternoon's stunning defeat for the Obama administration.

 

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In November, Senate Democrats changed the rules that govern the confirmation of presidential nominees, deciding that a 'cloture' vote – the motion to end debate and proceed to a final vote – should no longer require a supermajority of 60 votes to pass.

Instead, such nominees only need 51 votes. But Adegbile fell far short of that lower threshold.

Other Democrats who joined Reid, a Nevadan, to vote against Obama's nominee were Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Donnolly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and John Walsh of Montana.

Pryor and Manchin, in particular, face tough re-election fights in November.

President Obama fired off a nasty statement complaining about the Senate's failure to approve Adegbile, after he touched down in Connecticut to give a speech defending his call for a higher minimum wage, in advance of a Democratic fundraising trip to Boston

President Obama fired off a nasty statement complaining about the Senate's failure to approve Adegbile, after he touched down in Connecticut to give a speech defending his call for a higher minimum wage, in advance of a Democratic fundraising trip to Boston

Maureen Faulkner, widow of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, called Adegbile's nomination after he defended her husband's murderer ''an abomination ... as if he had done something wonderful'

Maureen Faulkner, widow of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, called Adegbile's nomination after he defended her husband's murderer ''an abomination ... as if he had done something wonderful'

An aide to a Republican senator told MailOnline that politics were very much in play.

'Reid switched sides to give those two [Manchin and Pryor] cover,' said the staffer, who asked for anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

'Neither of them wanted to see ads back home linking them to a cop-killer. It's that simple.'

Reid, in fact, had slammed Republicans for opposing Adegbile just moments before joining them, saying it was 'an affront to what it means to live in America.'

He also claimed the GOP's staunch resistance was part of a party-wide effort to disenfranchise black voters who side with Democratic candidates in large numbers.

'They don't want people to vote and they especially don't want poor people to vote,' Reid said, before switching his allegiance.

Abu-Jamal, in prison for the 1981 murder of policeman Daniel Faulkner, received significant help from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in successfully appealing his death sentence.

Adegbile led those efforts as the organization's litigation director, filing briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that racism tainted the jury selection in his case.

Politics: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (L) switched sides on Wednesday to vote against Adegbile, giving vulnerable Democrats facing tough re-election fights a rationale for opposing the nominee

Politics: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (L) switched sides on Wednesday to vote against Adegbile, giving vulnerable Democrats facing tough re-election fights a rationale for opposing the nominee

The Senate Judiciary Committee's Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa (L) railed against Adegbile's race-based defense of a cop-killer, calling it 'a cause in search of legal justification'

The Senate Judiciary Committee's Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa (L) railed against Adegbile's race-based defense of a cop-killer, calling it 'a cause in search of legal justification'

A broad swath of opponents of the Obama nominee have included the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, who recalled a vicious period of fractured race relations that culminated in the murder of Faulkner, who was shot in the back, in the stomach, and in the face.

Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered in 1981 while on a routine patrol in Philadelphia. bullet casings on the scene were tied to a gun registered to Mumia Abu-Jamal. Faulkner was shot first in the back, then in the front, and later in the face as he lay dying

Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered in 1981 while on a routine patrol in Philadelphia. bullet casings on the scene were tied to a gun registered to Mumia Abu-Jamal. Faulkner was shot first in the back, then in the front, and later in the face as he lay dying

John McNesby, the organization's president, called Adegbile's nomination 'an absolute slap in the face to every police officer, especially those who gave their lives in the line of duty.'

'There’s outrage, there’s resentment there’s disapproval. You name it and our cops are feeling it,' he said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republicans' senior member on the powerful Judiciary Committee, delivered the day's most dramatic floor speech, outlining reasons why Adegbile shouldn't be handed the reins in the federal government's chief civil rights enforcement agency.

Grassley said Adegbile's defense of Abu-Jamal was a progressive 'cause in search of a legal justification.'

'It was a cause premised on the notion that this country’s most notorious cop-killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was a victim,' he said. 'And the police officers, prosecutors, and the entire judicial system were to blame.'

The Judiciary Committee narrowly approved Adegbile's nomination in February, setting up Wednesday's showdown on the Senate floor.

Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Abu-Jamal's victim, had written to the committee to say that 'officers who knew Danny, and who, like him, put their lives on the line everyday, must now witness Adegbile, a man proud to have chosen to aid the murderer of their friend, singled out for honors and high office by the government of the United States.'

'It is an abomination to now reward Mr. Adegbile, as if he had done something wonderful.'

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Who woke up Obama? Was he on the gold course again?

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This is unbelievable - how in God's name or anyone else's could the so called leader of the free World - that idiot Obama stick his nose into this. I will write this comment twice one with and one without the next comment and see if any, either - or are published - you can guess my comment if one is published - has to do with a certain colour.

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President Canute should realise.that the tide has turned and is rolling toward him.

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I feel so sorry for the victim's widow, Maureen. Seeing her husband's killer glorified by the left. Seeing the French name a street Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal in honor of her husband's killer and now this nomination from our President. I don't know where she finds the strength to carry on.

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So a lawyer doing what is right and following the rules is rejected by the senate for doing his job.Incidentally the supreme court agreed and threw out that case.By this senate's rules those justices in the Supreme Court should be kicked out too.Looks like doing what is right and true for a lawyer aint good enough for this senate.Impeccable public servant with meritorious service counts for nothing.By this same reckoning a doctor that saves the life of a cop killer on the operating table will be deemed as tainted.Seems like the only ones breaking the rules are the ones making it up as they go.

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Shut up you dolt. You're just another leftist idiot who knows NOTHING about this case.

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A convicted cop killer is really a victim...Only the looney left believe that absolute nonsense. UNREAL!

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So sad that this country elected not once but twice, a coward and idiot that the world would have been better off without. to bad his mother didn't opt for abortion. he's an embarrassment.

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I do NOT like Barack Obama, but to say he should have been aborted is just disturbing

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JAMF

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Help us Brits out - well me - - what does that mean

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Tough luck jugears. Try again next time, fool.

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The absence of the usual liberal trolls in the comment section, pretty much sums this one up. Even they couldn't get behind a totally transparent attempt to continue to layer the government machine with more and more liberal socialists.

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Liberal socialist? The guy defended a cop killer. And obama wanted to APPOINT HIM?? Kinda tells us all we need to know about obama and his filthy ilk.

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Not just a liberal socialist. A Marxist radical cop-hater and America-hater. This is who Obama wants running this country.

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