Loretta Lynch confirmed as attorney general

Loretta Lynch on Thursday won confirmation to serve as the nation's attorney general, ending months of delay. The vote was 56-43 in the Senate.

Lynch will replace Eric Holder and will be the first black woman in the nation's top law enforcement post. She currently serves as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Her confirmation was delayed for months for a variety of reasons, most recently a lengthy dispute over abortion on an unrelated bill to address sex trafficking.

Lynch boasts strong credentials and a reputation as a no-nonsense prosecutor, but many Republicans opposed her because of her support for President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration.

"She is as qualified a candidate as I've seen in my time in the Senate," said Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, adding that in approving her nomination, the Senate would be doing "something it should have done months ago."

Although most Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had planned to oppose her, they seemed ready to move on after delaying her vote — most recently to complete work on a human trafficking bill that became ensnared in an unexpected and lengthy dispute over abortion. A compromise on that issue was reached earlier this week, and the trafficking bill was unanimously approved on Wednesday.

McConnell barely mentioned the Lynch vote in his opening remarks on the Senate floor Thursday.

"Today we'll consider the president's nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch," McConnell said. "Last month, I said the Senate would consider this nominee as soon as we passed an all-important anti-slavery bill, and today, we'll consider the nominee."

Democrats had grown incensed over the long delay in confirming Lynch, with Obama weighing in last week to lament Senate dysfunction and decry the wait as "crazy" and "embarrassing." Yet Democrats controlled the Senate when Lynch was nominated in November and could have brought up her nomination for a vote then. They held off with the GOP's encouragement after being routed in the midterm elections and spent the time confirming judges instead.

There was an expectation that Republican leaders would move Lynch's nomination swiftly this year, especially since most GOP members of Congress loathe Holder, who is seen as too politically close to Obama and even more liberal. Instead, the nomination became tangled in the dispute over Obama's executive actions limiting deportations for millions of immigrants in the country illegally. Once Lynch voiced support for his moves, a number of potential Republican supporters abandoned her, and her nomination seemed to stall.

Lynch, who grew up in North Carolina, has been the top prosecutor since 2010 for a district that includes Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, a role she also held from 1999 to 2001. She is seen as a straight shooter, has wide law enforcement support and is viewed as a noncontroversial choice.

The Associated Press