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The Kentucky attorney general who has been thrust into the national spotlight after announcing a grand jury’s decision in the Breonna Taylor shooting investigation has been described as a “star” by President Trump – and is on a shortlist of candidates to fill the current vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Daniel Cameron, 34, made history last year by being elected as the state’s first Black attorney general. He is also the first Republican to hold the position in more than 70 years.
Trump heaped praise on Cameron during a rally in November, saying that “a star is born.”
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron addresses the media following the return of a grand jury investigation into the death of Breonna Taylor, in Frankfort, Ky., on Wednesday. (AP)
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Since then, Cameron appears to have taken a more prominent role within the Republican Party, using his speech at the National Convention in August to criticize Democrat candidate Joe Biden as a “backwards thinker” whose record is a "trail of discredited ideas and offensive statements”.
“Mr. Vice President look at me, I am Black, we are not all the same sir, I am not in chains, my mind is my own and you can't tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin,” Cameron said.
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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron speaks at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
In early September, prior to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Trump included Cameron in a list of 20 people he would nominate to the Supreme Court, alongside senators such as Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
Before he became attorney general in Kentucky, Cameron served as legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and “successfully spearheaded the confirmation processes for conservative federal judges, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch,” a biography on his website says.
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He also served as a spokesman for Kentucky Smart on Crime, it adds, which describes itself as “a broad-based coalition working for common sense justice reforms that enhance public safety, strengthen communities and promote cost effective sentencing alternatives.”
And his “commitment to working with law enforcement” has been endorsed by the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police, the biography says.
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“As the chief law enforcement officer for the Commonwealth, [Cameron] is committed to protecting Kentuckians, fighting the drug epidemic, and being a voice for the voiceless, including victims of child abuse and human trafficking, and defending the laws of the Commonwealth,” it further states.
Cameron, who was born in Elizabethtown, also played football at the University of Louisville and completed a federal judicial clerkship after his graduation.
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As Kentucky’s attorney general, Cameron has also clashed with the state’s Democrat governor, Andy Beshear.
In April, Beshear vetoed legislation passed by the state’s Republican-heavy general assembly that would have given Cameron greater authority to regulate abortion clinics, including the power to suspend abortions as elective procedures during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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Cameron, the Associated Press says, argued that the powers were “necessary and timely” as other medical procedures had been put on hold at the time.
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But Beshear, in explaining his veto, said “it is simply not the time for a divisive set of lawsuits that reduce our unity and our focus on defeating the novel coronavirus and restarting our economy.”
Cameron called the veto “reprehensible,” saying in a statement that “there is no more divisive action than to veto a bill that received support from both sides of the aisle and protects our most vulnerable.”
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer, Morgan Phillips and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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