"I Don't Want To Be Misled Here": John Kennedy Presses Biden Noms On Qualified Immunity Opposition

[Music] thank you mr chairman i want to begin i don't have any questions for him but i want to give a shout out to my friend mr pulley uh who served honorably and well as a united states attorney in louisiana and i'm going to vote for him and i want to thank him for his willingness to serve i don't know how he talked his spouse into it he's given a major dollars to come back in the government service but i am grateful that he is willing to do so thank you for your support senator um ms strickland counselor you do not believe in qualified immunity for law enforcement officials do you um thank you for the question senator um for much of my career i have served on the board of the new mexico criminal defense lawyers yes ma'am but see my time is so limited you don't believe in qualified immunity for law enforcement officials do you so so on behalf of organizations and associations that i've been we have taken the position that new mexico who is considering its own civil rights bill should not um let me ask you again do you believe in qualified immunity from law enforcement officials so you personally well any any personal views that i have on it would not come into consideration and if i were to be confirmed as a judge oh surely i have sure they will you're if if you're confirmed you're going to do everything you can to undermine qualified immunity aren't you no senator qualified immunity is the law of the land it is the law of the supreme court is there's a law of the 10th circuit and i would apply well you spent your entire adult career arguing against qualified immunity haven't you well i have spent my time as an advocate working underneath qualified immunity where i did not argue against qualified immunity i worked within the bounds of qualified immunity and on behalf of association but you don't believe in it it's okay i mean this is america you can believe what you want but i don't want to be misled here you don't believe in qualified immunity do you i do i do believe senator and qualified immunity it is the law of this country it is a law well then why did you help new mexico why did you you worked so hard to get mexico to change new mexico to change it well new mexico was new mexico was considering a new bill regarding um civil rights and it was trying to decide whether qualified immunity should apply okay i i understand i'm not trying to cut you off i really hate being rude like this interrupt wrestling folks we have so little time here's what i want to ask you i want you to answer this one for me in front of god and country um if you you personally were queen for a day and you could make any policy you wanted to right now and you had the ability to get rid of qualified immunity for law enforcement officials by just sweeping your hand you're telling me you wouldn't do it yes senator i qualified immediately you wouldn't do it i would not it's qualified let me ask a question of mr chipman who's mr chipman you're nominated for uh alcohol tobacco and firearms and explosives and all kind of other dangerous stuff is that right yes senator okay you don't believe in private ownership of handguns do you that's incorrect i own one myself do you um do you believe in in private ownership of assault weapons um what do you own by the way that's a pretty private question um i have the i'll share the the gun i'm proudest of it's a smith and wesh wesson treasury commemorative gun and the serial number is my birth date oh that's cool congratulations do you believe in banning assault weapons i do sir okay define assault weapons assault weapons would be something that members of congress would define well how do you define it you're going to be running the agency senator i think this is a good question if i am um confirmed as atf director i got 35 seconds left define it for me would you please sir um what's an assault weapon yeah senator um the bill uh to ban assault weapons what is of pages there's no way i could define an assault weapon you don't have any you're going to run in this agency and you don't have a definition of assault weapon but i would be enforcing the definition that membership i'm going to be issuing rules and regulations just give me your definition um i'll give you one definition that 18 give me your definitions one definition that atf current give me your definition i can give you one definition if you want to answer my question how can i vote for you i'm done mr chairman i don't think i'm gonna get an answer

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 445,806

Keywords: Sen. John Kennedy, Senate, qualified immunity

Id: nwB5SirsZUk

Length: 5min 13sec (313 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021