Thursday, March 28, 2024

Just to Be Clear: Obama Did Not ‘Leave’ Trump With Over 100 Federal Judge Vacancies (Video)

trump debate

*Donald Trump inherited 88 district and 17 court of appeals vacancies from President Obama when he moved into the White House. Fourteen months later he proclaimed “when I got in we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed. I don’t know why Obama left that … Maybe he got complacent.”

He repeated the claim Tuesday night during his first presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden, saying: “You know one of the reasons I’ll have so many judges? Because President Obama and him left me 128 judges to fill. When you leave office, you don’t leave any judges. That’s like you just don’t do that. They left 128 openings, and if I were a member of his party, because they have a little different philosophy, I’d say if you left us 128 openings you can’t be a good president, you can’t be a good vice president. But I want thank you because it gives us almost — it’ll probably be above that number. By the end of this term — 300 judges. It’s a record.”

What Trump fails to mention whenever he spouts this nonsense is that the Senate, under Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, refused to confirm many of Obama’s judicial nominees, including his Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland, who was named to fill the vacancy left by the February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

In fact, McConnell actually chuckled about blocking Obama’s judicial choices during a 2018 appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”

Under Trump’s presidency, McConnell now insists that there’s nothing “we can do …that’s more important … than confirming judges as rapidly as we get them.”

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING