Yoo Sang-beom: "Rejection of Arrest Consent Due to Lee Jae-myung... 'Because of Han Dong-hoon' Is an Excuse"

"No Talk of Woo Byung-woo Running from the Party"
"Cho Kuk Is a Hypocrisy Icon... Difficult for the Democratic Party to Accept"

Regarding the rejection of the arrest consent bills for lawmakers Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man, who left the Democratic Party of Korea amid the 2021 party convention money envelope scandal, Yoo Sang-beom, senior spokesperson for the People Power Party, pointed out that "the rejection of the arrest consent bills was entirely due to the judicial risks faced by Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party."

On the 13th, Yoo said on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show', "Basically, within the Democratic Party, the past rejection of arrest consent bills due to the judicial risks of Leader Lee has already spread moral insensitivity throughout the party,"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He explained, "The rejection of the arrest consent bill for lawmaker Roh Woong-rae was also based on the premise that Leader Lee's arrest consent bill request was coming, so it was rejected. After that, regarding the current cases of lawmakers Yoon and Lee, since the party leadership had already rejected issues related to the former party leader, there was no justification to persuade Democratic Party lawmakers," adding, "Because of that, the moral insensitivity within the Democratic Party, as I mentioned earlier, became widespread, and it was expected that the bills would be rejected. (On the previous day) in the morning, there were rumors within the party leadership that the bill for lawmaker Yoon would be approved, while that for lawmaker Lee would be rejected."

The Democratic Party claims that Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon’s statement during the arrest consent explanation that "20 people who received money envelopes are participating in the vote" induced the rejection. However, Yoo countered, "Democratic Party lawmakers always need a justification after rejecting a bill," and said, "They used that wording as a justification for rejection and provoked us, so suddenly their minds changed and the bill was rejected. It’s just an excuse."

Regarding the interpretation that Minister Han deliberately made the statement aiming for rejection, Yoo said, "It is an overly conspiratorial interpretation by politicians," adding, "It seems to overestimate Minister Han’s political acumen."

On rumors about former Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo running for office, Yoo said, "Whether he will run depends on his own decision, so I cannot say for sure, but in an interview with JoongAng Ilbo around the 9th, he made somewhat ambiguous remarks that, politically speaking, suggested he might run," adding, "Within the party, there has never been any mention of Woo’s candidacy."

Regarding rumors about former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk running for office, Yoo evaluated, "He said he would go down a path without a compass or road, showing signs of building up a political candidacy," and "However, if former Minister Cho runs, he would ultimately be an icon of double standards, right? So there would be a lot of internal criticism, and it would not be easy for the Democratic Party to accept him."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.