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Biden Outpacing Trump in Judicial Confirmations

Biden Outpacing Trump in Judicial Confirmations

Losing both Senate seats in the January 2021 Georgia runoffs made it impossible for Senate Republicans to stop the Biden judicial train.

Throughout the Trump presidency, we chronicled Trump’s success at nominating, and Mitch McConnell’s success in confirming, 226 federal judges, including three for SCOTUS and 54 for the Courts of Appeal.

For the historical record:

With Biden’s win, it was inevitable that the Team Obama that runs the Biden executive branch would try to even the score  It could have been stopped, along with some of Biden’s legislation, but only if Republicans won at least one of the two George Senate runoffs on January 5, 2021.

But those runoff elections were pissed away, and yes, Trump deserves much of the blame because he made the runoffs about him and his insistence that Georgia Republicans refuse to certify the 2020 Georgia election result. Trump admitted as much:

Former President Donald Trump said he could have done more to boost voter turnout in the critical 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs for incumbent GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, but didn’t because he was “angry” over losing the 2020 presidential election.

Trump discussed his role in the January 5 runoffs in an interview with the Washington Examiner reporter and author David Drucker for Drucker’s new book, “In Trump’s Shadow: The Battle for 2024 and the Future of the GOP,” which was published on Tuesday.

“They didn’t want to vote, because they knew they got screwed in the presidential election,” Trump told Drucker of Georgia Republicans, acknowledging that the depressed GOP turnout cost Republicans control of the Senate.

Drucker then asked Trump what he thought could have happened if Trump had instead said that, “despite some irregularities that deserved looking into, the state’s voting system was reliable” and urged his supporters to vote.

“I don’t know,” Trump said. “I did two very successful rallies — very successful rallies. I did say a version of that, but not as strongly as you said, because I was very angry with what happened there.”

Following the Republican losses in Georgia, which handed Senate control to Democrats, Trump insisted he wasn’t to blame. Instead, he repeatedly pointed fingers at Georgia’s GOP governor, Brian Kemp, for refusing to overturn his state’s election results and at Senate leader Mitch McConnell for refusing to support $2,000 stimulus checks as part of the December COVID-19 relief bill.

Trump relentlessly attacked Georgia Republicans, and guess what, a lot of them sat out the runoffs:

Over 752,000 Georgia voters who cast ballots in the presidential election didn’t show up again for the runoffs just two months later, according to a new analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of recently released voting records.

Democrats won both races. That gave Democrats 50 Senate seats allowing Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaker. And now Biden is packing the courts at a faster pace than Trump:

The Democratic-led Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s 100th federal judge Tuesday, marking a milestone for the president and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The two Democrats have made it a priority to reshape U.S. courts with judges who tend to be younger, liberal and more diverse — both in terms of race and ethnicity, as well as professional experience — than the current bench, a project aided by Democrats expanding their Senate majority in the 2022 midterm election.

On Monday, the Senate confirmed Cindy Chung to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making her the first Asian American to serve on that court. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 54-45 to make Gina Méndez-Miró a district court judge in Puerto Rico; the nomination passed a key test vote that indicates she has the necessary support to be confirmed and will become Biden’s 100th confirmed judge.

She will be Biden’s 69th confirmed district court judge. He has also secured Senate approval for 30 circuit court judges and one Supreme Court justice: Ketanji Brown Jackson….

Biden and Democrats are outpacing former President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Senate — at this juncture, Trump had secured 85 judges.

It makes a difference:

The Democratic-controlled Senate is poised to approve another slate of President Biden’s judicial nominees with a history of working for left-leaning organizations that represent abortion interests, the gun control lobby, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The judicial nominations are Biden’s way of “paying back the left-wing dark money groups who spent over a billion dollars to help elect him and Senate Democrats,” Carrie Severino, president of JCN, formerly known as Judicial Crisis Network, told Fox News Digital.

“These nominees will happily deliver the left’s policy preferences from the bench, regardless of the law,” Severino added. “If confirmed, they will be some of the most radical judges in the country.” …

These [upcoming nomination votes] include Julie Rikelman, the U.S. litigation director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, to serve on the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.

Rikelman argued for the abortion industry in two separate Supreme Court cases, according to the Alliance for Justice, a liberal legal group.

She argued the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as her clients lost their case to block a Mississippi abortion restriction. Before that, she separately argued the case of June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Russo regarding a Louisiana abortion restriction.

Biden also nominated Nancy Abudu, a former strategic litigation director for the Southern Poverty Law Center after working for the American Civil Liberties Union, to serve on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Biden is turning out to be the most consequentially disastrous and damaging Democrat president of our lifetime. It’s the third term of Obama on steroids. And it didn’t need to be this bad.

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Comments

This would be McConnell’s fault!!!!

    Danny in reply to gonzotx. | February 14, 2023 at 10:13 pm

    Trump is the one who made sure Democrats not only failed to lose the senate but gained a seat.

      While also correct, Mr. Jacobson is writing at length about the GA Senate runoff elections in early 2021. If it had not been all about him, instead of the good of the country, Trump could have campaigned night and day in GA, backed it up with money, and America would have avoided these last 2 catastrophic years and the next 2, in terms of legislation, inflation, national debt and judicial appointees, etc.

      DJT: “We got screwed in the election, but I am not what matters. America is what matters. If the Dems win these Georgia Senate seats, Biden will be able to destroy this country and he will. We need every last person in the state of Georgia to come out and vote for these two Republican Senators, and for America.”

      That is the speech Trump did not make and he deserves the credit for the result. While Trump may also have lost because of ballot fraud, he certainly lost because of dishonest manipulation of the media by the press, big tech, government agencies, etc. But, results are what matter and Trump lovers are only giving him credit for half of what he has done and not for Biden’s accomplishments with full Senate control. I feel bad for what happened to Trump, but it is time for him to retire from the stage, before more damage is done – 10 points extra Democrat turnout if he is the 2024 candidate.

        jhkrischel in reply to jb4. | February 15, 2023 at 7:39 am

        They cheated in Georgia both for the General, and the run-off.

        What was needed was a flood of lawyers and election observers, not campaign speeches. No amount of strategy on Trump’s part was going to move the needle far enough to overcome cheating.

        The fact that Fulton, Cobb, and Dekalb county elections weren’t taken over by the state in 2022 was not a good sign. GA passed some good legislation, but didn’t use the powers they had.

        Trump isn’t perfect, for sure, but our problem is election integrity.

          How do you explain the loss by Walker when Kemp’s vaunted ground was in operation?

          The trashing of Trump and disparagement of his “minions” seems out of the pages of web sites where not being woke is a sin.

          What will you do if Trump wins the nomination, after the disparagement?

        Massinsanity in reply to jb4. | February 15, 2023 at 1:36 pm

        Amen! Trump’s behavior regarding the GA runoffs is a disqualifying for any future run. He handed us Ralph Wornock, Senator for life. Good God.

          healthguyfsu in reply to Massinsanity. | February 15, 2023 at 7:05 pm

          Gets a complete pass from his minions for it.

          And the evidence-free cries of conspiracy to fraud comes out because Kemp dared to not listen to Trump’s calls to light the Constitution on fire.

      chrisboltssr in reply to Danny. | February 14, 2023 at 11:12 pm

      Trump could have made the entire election about everything but himself, all the Democrats would still have voted for the Democrat. And many Republicans won’t vote anymore because we see what the Republicans in power have been doing.

      At this point, I am all for Americans getting what they want when they elect Democrats and I hope the Leftists give it to them good and hard.

        Dathurtz in reply to chrisboltssr. | February 15, 2023 at 7:13 am

        It’s gotta get worse before it gets better?

        I would settle for the “classy” segment of “conservatives” (who think we are just as deplorable as Hillary does) waking up from their willful self-delusion.

          healthguyfsu in reply to Dathurtz. | February 15, 2023 at 7:07 pm

          More bullshit.

          We’d vote with you if you’d vote with us. You see we don’t want to end you like the Dems do, we just don’t agree with you, so you throw out a bunch of bullshit like your hero Trump.

        healthguyfsu in reply to chrisboltssr. | February 15, 2023 at 7:06 pm

        Bullshit. Your type will vote if it’s Trump but won’t turn out if it’s not. If it’s so rigged, why does that matter?

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to Danny. | February 15, 2023 at 6:52 am

      That’s as may be, but he at least kept his ego feeling good.

      WTPuck in reply to Danny. | February 15, 2023 at 9:54 am

      No, it’s on the the citizens of GA who didn’t bother to show up. I’m sure my vote in any election is wiped out by fraud, but I still vote.

        healthguyfsu in reply to WTPuck. | February 15, 2023 at 7:09 pm

        You aren’t sure…you just pout about fraud when it doesn’t go your way. It’s the same attitude used by Trump.

        By the way, HE TOLD CITIZENS OF GA NOT TO SHOW UP.

“Biden is turning out to be the most consequentially disastrous and damaging Democrat president of our lifetime. It’s the third term of Obama on steroids.”

His third term has been embarrassing in many ways and rumor has it that Obama is not all that happy with it. I think he plans on changing a few things duging his fourth term when his wife is sworn in.

“Impossible to stop” – BUT, easy to slow down – if only they’d actually do it.

The D’s insisted on the full 30 hours of “debate” for EVERY appointment needing Senate confirmation. This includes all judicial appointments, and bureaucrat positions from cabinet level to sever levels below that – thousands of positions.

Three years in, Trump still had huge numbers of vacant bureaucrat positions and the judicial appointments were moving at the pace of 1 per 30 house. Period.

Are R’s doing the same to the D’s on this? Of course not.

    gmac124 in reply to Aarradin. | February 15, 2023 at 3:58 pm

    “BUT, easy to slow down – if only they’d actually do it.”

    I am glad you made this point. I was going to make it if no one else had.

    One additional point I would like people to consider. With the ineffective resistance that R’s are known to put up would it be any different if the R’s would have won the runoffs? I can easily see them saying well Biden is the president so we can’t stop his nominee’s.

    While I am not against assigning some blame to Trump I really don’t see that he should be holding the entire bag when there is so much blame to go around.

Kemp did not seem to do much better this past November. Trump is human. He makes mistakes. Remember that, too, about others. He was transparent, more than any politician, and his good decisions far outweigh the bad.

The way Biden is going, judges will be far down the list of catastrophes. What has been his primary objective, reverse virtually whatever Trump was for. Guess Trump was doing something right. And now he is tossed to the curb. He was the architect and implementer, and people intrinsically know it. And they will know that it was a witchhunt against him, that Hitler never arrived.

So what will happen as things go further down the crapper? What will happen if Trump wins the nomination? Hamilton68 did plenty of damage.

    Judges are never far down the list of bad or good things that presidents do. They are long lasting for good or ill and too often mostly invisible.

    healthguyfsu in reply to oldschooltwentysix. | February 15, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    Kemp won his state by over 7 points. Trump’s pick Walker…not so much.

      Kemp supported Walker, yet he still lost this past election.

      Blame it on Trump.

        healthguyfsu in reply to oldschooltwentysix. | February 15, 2023 at 8:50 pm

        Kemp supported Walker after being the nominee. Who is he supposed to support, Warnock?

        Who hand-picked Walker to be the nominee and endorsed him before that? The guy who he kissed up to…Trump.

          Trump doesn’t understand his own appeal to his voters and supporters. He thinks it was his celebrity that got him elected, and that is why he keeps pushing celebrity candidates that no one wants and whom Trump himself hasn’t even bothered to have a staffer google to make sure they aren’t going to be a complete disaster.

          Silly, evasive, non-responsive response. Kemp, who you lauded, threw his total operation behind him, yet he lost. It’s all Trump. Sounds like a one horse pony.

          Kemp threw his entire operation behind him because he had no choice. It was either completely disgraced and unelectable Walker (Trump’s pick) or the commie Warnock (running as a Democrat). Kemp was trying to help the GOP keep the Senate, but that’s actually trying to be a team player, so I can understand why a Trump supporter wouldn’t understand. As the professor points out with no small degree of frustration if not outright anger, Trump’s inability to pull for the team because of his own butthurt cost us the Senate, not once but twice.

          And that is a real issue for a lot of people who count that among the reasons they are done with Trump. You don’t have to agree with them/us, but it’s silly to pretend it’s not true and a real factor in determining the GOP nominee. It’s even sillier to lash out at the only potential pool of voters who might consider Trump, but I guess that’s the Trump cult way.

          Bandy Lee would be proud.

          That’s ridiculous. I make no claims to be a psychologist, but I can read. Here are Trump’s own words on his selection of Oz (he said similar things about Walker because he really does think his followers are stupid enough to vote for celebrity over any other concern):

          “In announcing his endorsement, Trump noted Oz “has lived with us through the screen.”

          “He’s somebody that had great success on television, which is like the ultimate poll,” Trump told supporters at a teletownhall last week.

          So tell me again how my assessment is incorrect or in any way comparable to those made by Bandy Lee. Waiting.

          Massinsanity in reply to healthguyfsu. | February 16, 2023 at 8:52 am

          Trump’s PA pick lost to a stroke patient who couldn’t put a sentence together and cannot understand spoken words… let that sink in.

It’s Trump and the Always-Trumpers. And based on the comments on yesterday’s Nikki Haley post, it will be the same for another 6 years. The Always-Trumpers have made him into a god, proving that conservatives can be just as stupid as leftists. They worship at their hero’s alter. Blame McConnell, or Lindsey Graham, or [fill-in-name-here] Republican who disagrees with you and, thus, is obviously a RINO. Such a shame.

    Aren’t you doing exactly what you lament in others?

      I don’t understand your point. My point is to be considerate in assessing the candidates. My point is to be realistic, not idealistic, and to put an end to the hero worship. If all you want is Trump, buy his NFT.

        Peabody in reply to Stuytown. | February 15, 2023 at 9:22 am

        Stuy says, “It’s Trump and the Always-Trumpers. The Always-Trumpers have made him into a god, proving that conservatives can be just as stupid as leftists. They worship at their hero’s alter”. “Grab one of his NFT’s.”

        Then after all that Stuy says, “My point is to be considerate.”

        Ha ha ha. You so funny!

          Stuytown in reply to Peabody. | February 15, 2023 at 11:19 am

          “Considerate” as in “to consider” or to be “thoughtful” in assessing the candidates. I didn’t use the exact right word there.

          Peabody in reply to Peabody. | February 15, 2023 at 12:46 pm

          I see! It’s alright for you to put down Trump and his supporters but you would like for us to be considerate and thoughtful toward candidates you support.

      healthguyfsu in reply to oldschooltwentysix. | February 15, 2023 at 7:13 pm

      Nope.

      Who is his Trump if you are going to try a really weak tit for tat?

        Not interested in tit for tat. It’s not “his Trump” that is the issue, although perhaps you have failed to notice that others, too, are made god-like lately. It’s sounding like a Never Trumper and showing disdain to Trump supporters that do not agree. Uncalled for.

          You already proposed a tit for tat, so too late on that one. Try and keep up with your own words from time to time…or don’t and look like someone that can’t carry on a conversation (3rd time now for you).

          You said aren’t you doing exactly what you lament in others?

          So, again, if Stuy is lamenting god-worship in others, who is Stuy’s god? Or you can just pretend like you never said it. At least here, you can’t backtrack and delete it.

    jhkrischel in reply to Stuytown. | February 15, 2023 at 7:44 am

    Remember when we thought if you nominated a man with strong moral character, bipartisan instincts, and a clear clean presence, we thought it could overcome a race-baiting, russia ignoring, civilian droning war monger?

    Trump isn’t a god, he’s a weapon. He’s got sharp edges on both sides, but the damage he’s doing is more to our enemies than our allies. Even with the Biden cheating to win, Trump was *still* worth it.

    He’s not a hero, but he is a fighter.

      Stuytown in reply to jhkrischel. | February 15, 2023 at 8:00 am

      I hope you got in early enough to grab one of his NFT’s after his “big announcement”.

      healthguyfsu in reply to jhkrischel. | February 15, 2023 at 7:14 pm

      Trump is damaged and it’s his own fault. Nice try, but he’s unelectable at this point.

        Is he? Are you sure?

          healthguyfsu in reply to oldschooltwentysix. | February 15, 2023 at 8:50 pm

          As sure as you are of voter fraud.

          I think Trump can win the GOP primary, but I agree with healthguyfsu that he is unelectable in the general. People who vote for other candidates in the GOP primary are likely to vote for Trump if he wins the nomination, but that won’t be enough to win the general.

          People hate Trump with the same passion others (and sometimes the same people) hate Hillary. They can run a senile, corrupt old pedophile and he’d win . . . oh, wait, they already did that (and yeah, yeah, lots of problems, many of them Trump’s own fault, but the fact is that election should have been a blow-out, I expected it to be, but it wasn’t. People hate Trump, fair or not, they do. And he is doing nothing to change anyone’s opinion of him . . . except to turn former Trump voters against him. He’s really good at that. As are his supporters, come to think of it, I can think of no one other than Trump himself who does more to turn off potential voters than Trump supporters.).

Leftists can learn lessons, Barky slacked so Trump picked up pace now Leftists are rushing to get Marxists into judicial positions

Thank you Cocaine Turtle!

    Yeah, it’s Cocaine Mitch. Not the failed Trump-endorsed candidates.

      Mitch’s Judiciary Committee is back to doing what they always do. Rubber-stamping all of the Dem appointments without delay. And who assigns senators to that committee? Let me see…. hmmm…Trump? No, I don’t think so. That’s just a Stuytown all-purpose excuse for everything. Yeah… hmmm… McConnell maybe? Winner!!!!

It’s much easier for Biden’s handlers to find judicial nominees they can count on that it ever could be for any republican. And under Schumer’s “leadership” the judiciary committee is a rubber stamp.

You have to remember it is not Biden but the gang behind him pulling his puppet strings!!! He is only the incompetent figurehead!!

Trump was a great president and helped save SCOTUS from being a progressive rubber stamp but Republicans lost control of the House in 2018 and the Senate in 2020 and 2022. and is more interested in replaying 2020 than in winning-DeSantis stands the best chance of beating any Democrat and fighting Big Media and Big Tech

    Try this on for size.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/02/the_desantis_is_trump_without_the_baggage_crowd_is_in_for_a_rude_awakening.html

    Your St. DeSantis is not what you believe. In fact, your belief system seems to include a lot of other MSM and Uniparty lies. That would make you a Republican, the party that finishes what the Democrats start. Unless Trump gets elected. You Trump haters are intellectually corrupt.

      healthguyfsu in reply to Pasadena Phil. | February 15, 2023 at 7:17 pm

      “intellectually corrupt”

      That would be a very apt word for Trump if he hadn’t officially lost it and become so out of touch these days.

      healthguyfsu in reply to Pasadena Phil. | February 15, 2023 at 7:37 pm

      Against my better judgment, I clicked on your shitblog link.

      I’ll save anyone else that wants to read it time. It’s highly speculative, sucks at Trump’s teat, and says maybe DeSantis won’t be good. That’s all it has and nothing else.

      Intellectually corrupt for Phil would imply that he actually has something working inside his skull.

        Massinsanity in reply to healthguyfsu. | February 16, 2023 at 8:55 am

        Thanks for taking the bullet. Anyone who has watched DeSantis operate in FL yet questions his conservative bonafides is delusional. Its sad really that the cult of personality trumps what you can see and hear every day.

          And here’s where we do not let a fringe minority cow us. DeSantis has literally declared that “Davos is not coming to Florida,” that “Florida is where ‘woke’ comes to die,” and we all sit in mute silence as a certain contingent crow that he’s a RINO globalist. Yeah, no.

          I’m not saying we be as ill-mannered and rude as Trump’s true believers, but we have to speak up . . . or be plowed under.

Capitalist-Dad | February 15, 2023 at 8:56 am

Once there are enough sophistic ideologues on the bench, the Constitution cam means anything the Democrat Reich wants it to mean.

While the pace is important, the administration can only fill what is open, and he fortunately had the lowest number available in three decades. To surpass trumps total Biden would need a record setting number of retirements.

Otherwise, I agree whole heartedly that losing the Senate blew.

    BierceAmbrose in reply to Eagle1. | February 19, 2023 at 4:50 pm

    Assassinations, rather.

    Put nothing past a movement killing inconvenient people tonreduce health care costs, or lobbying for heir own to “retire” so they can appoint others, longer-lived.

    Also, Epstein didn’t kill himself.

This story is too depressing to read about. Just demoralizing as hell. And, dotard-marionette, Biden — or, a younger replacement — may well get another four-year term with which to appoint even more committed Dumb-o-crat activists to the federal bench.

Achieving much during his administration does not excuse huge oversights or ego-driven reactions to results that he refused to believe could have been an honest reaction to his presidency. What did Trump in in 2020 was turnout, which got Biden 15 million more votes that Obama’s highpoint. Trump lost three states by small margins, and could only claim, never prove, that the tallies were illegitimate. Yes, the Democrats changed the rules in a manner inconsistent with state law in several states, but the turnout was the turnout, however juiced by Democratic-driven changes.

Trump’s own lawyer in Georgia in the aftermath of the November results explicitly stated that there was no reason for Republicans to vote in the Senate runoff because the election was rigged on behalf of the Democrats. And the Republicans did not, their turnout significantly lower than the fallout experienced by the Democrats. Trump can pat himself on the back for successful rallies but the rallies did nothing to overcome the depression resulting from Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

While Republicans need a new leader in the Senate, they also need a new candidate for President who will not want to relitigate the 2020 election result. We do not want deja vu all over again.