Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) bragged about President Donald Trump’s success in leaving a lasting impact on the federal judiciary during the president’s rally in his home state on Monday night.
McConnell said that he and Trump are “changing the federal courts forever,” by confirming almost 160 federal judges over the past three years:
“Nobody’s done more to change the court system in the history of our country than Donald Trump. And Mr. President, we’re going to keep on doing it. My motto is: Leave no vacancy behind.”
Watch his comments below:
.@senatemajldr McConnell at Trump rally: We are changing the federal courts forever…My motto is leave no judge vacancy behind. pic.twitter.com/8tl9YkfNeU
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) November 5, 2019
Trump touted his record on confirming federal judges and pointed to President Barack Obama’s failure to fill the vacancies, “President Obama left Mitch, and me, and Rand, and all of us, he left 142 openings for judges, you’re not supposed to allow any, you don’t do that.”:
“And I came in, and I said how many do we have? And they said how many what, sir? I said judge openings, and I thought they’d say none, or one or two. He said, sir, we have 142. I said, what? I said, tell me again. He said we have 142. So Mitch and I and Rand would like to thank very much President Obama because nobody has ever been so generous.”
Watch his comments below:
While Trump is on track with recent presidents for the number of judicial nominees that have been confirmed, Roll Call points out that he has appointed far more appellate court judges than his predecessors.
Mark Rom, a government and public policy professor at Georgetown University, told Roll Call that Trump has appointed twice as many appellate judges than most presidents:
“The big leagues in the judicial system means the Supreme Court and the appellate courts. There’s no question that President Trump has been incredibly effective at putting people on the appellate courts — in fact, he’s gotten more than twice as many appeals court judges than most of the other presidents.”
This week, the Senate could vote to confirm seven more judges.
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