The Senate is likely to approve Loretta Lynch as the nation’s next attorney general in the next two or three days, an influential Republican said Sunday.
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “State of the Union” that he expects a deal to quickly come together this week to clear both Lynch and an anti-human trafficking law that Democrats have blocked due to an abortion-related provision.
READ: Obama rips Senate over Lynch nomination
“My sense is, over the next 48 to 72 hours, that is going to be resolved, and we will move on to this Iran issue,” said Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has spearheaded a deal that would give Congress a chance to weigh in on President Barack Obama’s deal to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“This logjam that you are talking about over this nominee likely will be worked out in the beginning part of this week once the human trafficking piece is worked out with it,” Corker said.
His comments come after Obama called the delay over a vote on Lynch “embarrassing.”
“Enough. Enough. Call Loretta Lynch for a vote, get her confirmed, let her do her job. This is embarrassing,” Obama told reporters during a joint White House press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has held up Lynch’s nomination as leverage to get Democrats to drop their filibuster against the anti-human trafficking bill. A McConnell spokesman said as soon as that bill advances, Lynch will get a vote.
“There are times where the dysfunction in the Senate just goes too far,” Obama said. “This is an example of it.”
Lynch would be the country’s first African-American woman to hold the post. Her nomination has stalled longer than any attorney general pick since the Reagan administration.