Chuck Schumer: “I rise, first of all, to support Senator Feinstein's bill, which I proudly have been a cosponsor of, and I urge all my…”

“I rise, first of all, to support Senator Feinstein's bill, which I proudly have been a cosponsor of, and I urge all my colleagues to do the same. I wish to thank Senator Feinstein for being the first to discover this provision and for asking the right questions, which then set us on this journey about the U.S. attorneys. Second, I wish to thank Senator Leahy, our leader in the Judiciary Committee on this issue, who has been stalwart in making sure we get to the truth. Some have been content to casually dismiss the administration's actions relating to the firing of the eight U.S. attorneys as a comedy of errors at the Justice Department. Make no mistake about it, this is no comedy, this is a tragedy. It is a tragedy for eight public servants whose reputations have been wrongly trashed. It is a tragedy for the reputation of the Justice Department, as a whole, and for the Attorney General, in particular. Most importantly, however, it is a tragedy for public confidence in our system of justice. How can people have faith when the documents show that in this Justice Department allegiance to party is apparently valued over loyalty to the rule of law? How can citizens not be cynical when it is clear the PATRIOT Act was cynically manipulated to bypass checks and balances? We all know politics plays a role in the Justice Department, but it should be second to rule of law. On too many issues in this Justice Department, politics came first and rule of law came second.”