Biden pick Rachael Rollins poses threat to N.E. if confirmed
President Biden recently named Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins to be the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. Rollins has nothing but contempt for the rule of law. If she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the residents of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and all of New England would suffer the consequences.
Rollins became Suffolk District Attorney in 2019, with the backing of leftist billionaire George Soros. Soon after being sworn in, she declared that she was “going to battle” against the U.S. Attorney on immigration and drug offenses, including opioid trafficking. She also published a list of 15 crimes that she would refuse to prosecute except in special cases, sending the clear message to criminals that it was open season to commit those crimes. Among the charges on Rollins’s “do not prosecute” list are drug trafficking, malicious destruction of property, trespassing, driving with a revoked license and resisting arrest. This isn’t prosecutorial discretion, it’s prosecutorial nullification. In reaction to the publication of her procriminal list, the National
Police Association wrote, “Rollins has incited, and ineffect authorized certain illegal conduct that runs contrary to law.”
Rollins hasn’t been shy about her contempt for our criminal justice system. When asked why she became a prosecutor, she answered, “I chose to jump into this job to dismantle (the system) from the inside.” She also helped found an organization of Soros prosecutors called the “Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission,”
which claims that the American justice system has “been a cruel and oppressive force of injustice for … all marginalized communities,” which she claims “isn’t a bug in the system, but a feature. It’s operating exactly the way it was designed and built to function.” Rollins has also tarred police officers as “murderers,” causing the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association to condemn her for “undoubtedly incit(ing) violence against the proud men and women of the Boston Police Department.”
Her response was to accuse the Boston Police of “white fragility.” These are disqualifying views for a potential U.S. attorney.
Rollins’s weakness has emboldened criminals. In 2020, the first full year in which her policies have been in force, Boston’s violent crime rate surged and the number of murders skyrocketed by 38%. When Rollins took office, Suffolk County had the fifth-highest opioid overdose death numbers in Massachusetts, with 39% fewer deaths than the leading county; by the end of 2020, Suffolk County’s opioid overdose deaths had increased by 32%, and Suffolk County had become the second-deadliest county for opioid overdose.
If this abysmal record is brought to Massachusetts as a whole, it would also pose a significant threat to the health and safety of the people of New Hampshire — and this threat extends beyond the 100,000 Granite Staters who work in Massachusetts. Rollins’s insane drug policies would worsen the drug epidemic in New Hampshire. The opioid crisis, which is fueled by narcotics smuggled from Massachusetts, is responsible for over 80% of drug overdose deaths in that state. Cartels and traffickers use Boston and its ports as a staging ground to smuggle vast quantities of heroin and other drugs into New Hampshire. Rollins’s failure to vigorously enforce federal drug laws in Massachusetts would severely harm communities and families throughout the region.
Rollins’s committed refusal to enforce immigration laws and her support for sanctuary cities would also worsen Massachusetts’s MS13 infestation and the illegalimmigrant gang problem generally. Gangs do not respect state lines and would pose a threat to other New England communities. A soft-on-crime “prosecutor” in Massachusetts cannot be trusted to stop serious criminals from using Boston as a base to commit crimes throughout the region.
Rollins’s appalling statements, actions, and record caused Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to unanimously oppose her nomination. This is a nearly unprecedented action for a U.S. Attorney nomination and was not taken lightly. By contrast, for example, Republicans have allowed President Biden’s other 15 U.S. Attorney nominees across the country to sail through committee on an expedited basis and with a simple voice vote. Rollins is uniquely unfit for the role and deserves no such deference. President Biden should immediately rescind her nomination and if he refuses, my colleagues in the Senate should join me in rejecting her nomination.