President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday called for a delay in confirming President Joe Biden’s nominees to the federal judiciary until he takes office, accusing Democrats of “trying to pack the courts.”
“Democrats are trying to stack the Court with Radical Left judges right out the door,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, urging Republican senators to “show up and hold the line.”
“No More Judges Confirmed Before Inauguration Day!” Trump wrote it.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during the House GOP conference call, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
The president-elect’s directive is expected by Senate Democrats to spend hours in the coming weeks as part of a last-minute effort to confirm many of Biden’s nominees before Trump takes over in January. Senate Republicans scuttled their efforts late Monday, reversing a plan by soon-to-be leader Sen. John Thune to block confirmations of qualified judicial nominees.
Senate Republicans rebelled late Monday, dragging out the process, forcing Democrats to hold time-consuming votes on routine and otherwise mundane procedural motions. Actions that should have taken minutes on the ground took hours.
Thune, who He takes on the Senate Republican leader in Januarytook credit for the rebellion in a note that Republicans would not “think” of nominating Biden’s nominees to the federal bench “in the final weeks of the Democratic majority.”
“If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would change and allow several Biden-appointed judges to be quickly confirmed to lifetime posts in the final weeks of the Democratic majority, she was wrong,” Thune said in a statement to ABC News.
Thune’s statement, vowing to obstruct the judicial confirmation process in the final hours of Biden’s presidency, is a departure from comments he made at the end of the Trump administration a few years ago. At the time, Thune touted the importance of confirming judges to the bench, calling it “one of our most important responsibilities as senators” and one of the main reasons he ran for the Senate.
Senator John, newly elected Senate Majority Leader for the upcoming 119th Congress, speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“Mr. President, confirming good judges is one of our most important responsibilities as senators. And it’s a responsibility I take very seriously,” Thune said in a speech on November 18, 2020, after Biden won the election.
“After the election of George W. Bush, Democrats decided that the president’s judicial nominees might not produce the results the Democrats wanted. And so they decided to adopt a new strategy: regularly blocking judicial nominees,” Thune said in his statement. 2020. “I was one of many Americans upset about the blocking of talented and well-qualified candidates. And that was one of the main reasons I ran. I promised South Dakotans for Senate that if they elected me, I would help put in great judges.”
“In fact, one of the main reasons I was first elected to the Senate was to make sure that outstanding judicial nominees were confirmed to the federal bench. It’s hard to imagine now, but confirming judges was quite a bipartisan affair,” Thune said. at that time
His comments in 2020 are a stark reversal of his comments this week, as Senate Republicans stymie Democrats as they try to do the same to Biden.
Schumer, however, redoubled his efforts on Tuesday, saying he expects the Senate to work again this Wednesday night to get the nominees. Senate Democrats hope to confirm as many judges as they can to lifetime appointments while Biden is president.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference after a Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, Nov. 13, 2024.
Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images
“Members should prepare for another Wednesday night to vote on the nominations I presented last night,” Schumer warned.
“Voting the president’s judicial nominees is a fundamental function of the Senate. It’s one of our fundamental responsibilities, and we will fulfill that responsibility as long as this majority continues. I’m very proud of the judges we’ve had. Confirmed over the last four years under this administration, they’ve all been very qualified, and together, they represent a wide range of experience and expertise.”
Schumer praised the quality of judges the Senate has passed under her leadership, noting their diverse backgrounds and cultures and identities. Under her watch, the Senate has confirmed a record number of women and people of color to the federal bench.
Republicans hold Democrats’ record for judicial confirmations.
Republicans have confirmed 234 of Trump’s nominees to federal courts during his four years in office, while the Democratic-controlled Senate has confirmed 216 so far under the Biden administration.
“We’re not done,” Schumer said on the floor Tuesday. “There are more judges to consider and confirm.”
Schumer vowed to spend the week — and the year — confirming more judges. Every judge confirmed in this lame-duck session of Congress is a vacancy that Trump can fill starting in January.
