tor clapper's doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission. all right? it was six years ago, january 28th 2009 that the senate judiciary committee approved eric holder's nomination to be attorney general by an overwhelming vote of 17-2. today a very different senate judiciary committee will hear the new nominee loretta limpbl, president obama's nominee to be the next attorney general as they begin two days of hearing all of which will be covered live on c-span3, c-span c-span

radio and c-span.org as we go inside the hearing room the line still waiting to be admitted. some have so far. we possibly later will hear some of the folks waiting to be witnesses or actually in the audience of the hearing room this morning, and all of it will be live here on c-span3. the hearing will get under way in a few minutes. todd ruger covering the nominee and hearing and joins us from inside the hearing room. who is loretta lynch and what are her qualifications to be an attorney general? >> good morning. loretta lynch currently is the u.s. attorney in the eastern district of new york. that's based in brooklyn. she has been there since 2010. she was approved by the senate without a hearing for that spot. she has been a lifelong prosecutor and attorney. she previously worked for about a decade in that same office and she has prosecuted a large

number of civil rights cases, gang related case and other crimes and worked a lot with police, fbi, federal law enforcement agencies. she was born in north carolina and to parents who had humble beginnings and worked her way, very smart up to harvard law school, got her law degree and started her career from there basically on a law and order type prosecutor. >> what about the committee itself. we mention add moment ago six years ago eric holder was approved overwhelmingly by then democratic controlled senate judiciary committee. what will the hearing be like under the new chairman chuck grassley. >> senator grassley just took over. this is his first major hearing for a high-profile nominee of obama's. last time it was a democratic controlled democrat committee they are in charge of what happens and how it will go.

i expect them to ask about a lot of obama policies that are controversial that they don't like. for instance immigration, justice and legal department okay to do his latest executive action. they are going to want to know about that. a bunch of issues, a less friendly crowd she might have gotten if still controlled by democrats. >> back in december after the president made nomination announcement, senator vitter on the committee announced he wouldn't support the nomination. what are the numbers in terms of the number of republicans that have to support her nomination to get through committee? >> to get through committee they just need a majority. right now there's 20 members of the judiciary committee. senator vitter did say last december he was a no vote right now and that he would be strongly pushing against her in connection with that immigration executive order senator ted cruz

and mike lee expressed concerns about what miss lynch will say at this hearing about the immigration order. they say this is an unlawful thing the president has done to overstep his executive authority and that the justice department allowed that to happen. they are looking to press her about this immigration happened and why it's legal for the president to do it. if they are not satisfied there could be no votes as well. there's other concerns up and down the republican wing. in fact, all republicans signed onto a letter yesterday, loretta lynch and current eric holder whether or not they should bring suspected terrorists to trial in american civilian courts. the republicans would much rather see a policy where they use military tribunals and detain those people themselves. >> now the democratic side hasn't changed much. patrick leahy, former chairman is now the ranking member.

any other changes there. >> no, it's a special crew, they are experienced lawmakers. they have done a lot of these hearings before. senator leahy and democrats are looking to story as a person and her qualifications as an attorney which are pretty much without question at this point. and she has a great story. they're going to want to focus that. and then any questions that they, chance they get to ask questions they may try to rehabilitate any answers that she may have misstepped on earlier. she's going to have to defend the obama administration's policies from questions by the republicans, but at the same time, she wasn't there in the justice department headquarters making a lot of these decisions so she does have some distance, and the democrats are going to want to continue to focus on her as a person rather than the policies of the bomb mo administration? >> as we wait for the hearing to get under way we've been seeing audience members arrive. who will be there with loretta lynch and who will introduce her before the committee? >> she will be introduced by the two senators from new york.

she's said she will be bringing her family who can make it. her mother can't make it. her father will be here. and one of her brothers. another one of her brothers was a navy s.e.a.l. and has since passed away and she's going to have his navy s.e.a.l. pin with her today on the witness able according to the justice department. >> todd ruger with cq roll call. you can follow his coverage at twitter. thanks for the preview. >> yeah, sure. thanks. >> as we wait for the committee to come in and gavel in, we will just stay here a bit, and watch the room as they do come in. want to remind you that we'll have live coverage throughout the day here on c-span3. on c-span radio and at c-span.org. tomorrow as well. two days of hearings as we look at senator orrin hatch. live coverage now on c-span3.