Trump: ‘No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!’
President-elect Trump on Tuesday called for the Senate to stop confirming judges before he is sworn into office, amid a frantic effort from Democrats to confirm President Biden’s nominees.
“The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door. Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line — No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Senate Democrats held late-night votes Monday to confirm Biden’s picks to the federal judiciary.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told colleagues on the Senate floor Monday to confirm as many judicial nominees as they can before the new year, which could mean weekend and Christmas recess votes for the upper chamber.
Republicans tried to drag out the process Monday night by forcing Democrats to hold time-consuming votes on procedural motions to switch from executive to legislative session and back again.
The White House called out Trump and Republicans for trying to slow down confirmations at the end of the year, arguing that Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who was elected Senate GOP leader, considered it a priority to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees before the end of his last administration.
“Regardless of party, the American people expect their leaders to fight for the rule of law and to ensure the criminal justice system can function effectively in every state. Delaying the confirmation of highly qualified, experienced judges takes a real-life toll on constituents and leads to backlogs of criminal cases — meaning Senator Thune was correct in 2020 when he said senators have every urgent reason to continue working together in good faith to staff the federal bench. There is no excuse for choosing partisanship over enforcing the rule of law,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
As of Monday afternoon, the Democrat-controlled Senate had confirmed 216 of Biden’s Article III judicial nominees. During Trump’s four years in office, Republicans confirmed 234 of his nominees to the federal courts.
A few dozen Biden nominees are still pending, according to The Associated Press.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently urged Schumer in a Time magazine op-ed to “use every minute of the end-of-the year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators — none of whom can be removed by the next president.”
Updated at 3:59 p.m. EST.
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