White House pushes back on Trump call to halt confirmations in lame duck period

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

11/11/24 4:13 PM ET


A White House spokesperson on Monday pushed back on President-elect Trump’s demand that the Democratic Senate stop confirming judges during the lame-duck period before he takes office and the upper chamber flips to GOP control.

Senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates in a statement pointed to past precedent and the “real-life toll” such a pause would take on constituents to reject Trump’s request, which he posted over the weekend on social media.

“Regardless of party, the American people expect their leaders to prioritize the rule of law and ensuring the criminal justice system can function effectively in every state,” Bates said in a statement to The Hill. “Delaying the confirmation of strongly qualified, experienced judges takes a real-life toll on constituents and leads to backlogs of criminal cases — meaning there is every urgent reason for Republicans and Democrats to continue working together in good faith to staff the federal bench.”

Bates noted that the then-GOP-led Senate confirmed 55 nominee during the lame duck period of Trump’s first term after President Biden had won the 2020 election, including 18 judges. “There is no excuse for choosing partisanship over enforcing the rule of law,” Bates said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4984559-white-house-trump-lame-duck-judicial-confirmations-senate/

[GreenWave]

1. Now to see if it gets done.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. GOPee will choose not to hear any of that

Just like Trump's impeachments. And we can't reciprocate the dictatorship now. So we're powerless.

[kysrsoze]

3. I'm confused. What's preventing them from saying "tough shit," and moving along with it. We still run the Senate.

As long as we can get Manchin and Sinema to play along, what prevents them from just moving forward? We all know they're going to ramrod the biggest shitheads, and likely two replacements for Thomas and Alito, once they take over.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "What's preventing them from saying "tough shit," and moving along with it."

Remember this guy? There are others just like him in the Senate.

[kysrsoze]

6. That was for military promotions, not judge appointments. Are you 100% sure it's the same rule...

that a single person can hold up all voting on judges? Seems to me if that was the case, we wouldn't have has any confirmed during this term.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Remember that the Judiciary Committee has almost equal numbers of Senators from each party

and here is who you are dealing with for (R) members on the Judiciary Committee who would need to vote with Democrats to send nominees out of Committee - https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members

Chuck Grassley
John Cornyn
Mike Lee
Ted Cruz
Josh Hawley
Tom Cotton
John Kennedy
Thom Tillis
Marsha Blackburn

You also have a situation that was mentioned here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219704986

and the impact of the Senate "Blue Slip" - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19706093

Turtle did away with the "Blue Slip" (basically ignoring them) back in 2017 in order to help ram through judges but when Democrats took the Senate again in 2020, they brought that "tradition" back.

ETA - and then there is this - SENATE CONSERVATIVES ANNOUNCE SWEEPING HOLD POLICY ON BIDEN LAWFARE NOMINEES

[ancianita]

5. To the GOP it's all bluster & they're solidly united in not letting any of the 17 current nominations get to the floor.

Many of the pending nominees have been ready for floor votes for months due to unified GOP opposition.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/11/politics/biden-senate-democrats-judicial-nominees/index.html