Senate Democrats Barely Showed Up For the First Trump Judicial Confirmations Fight
It is hard to persuade your constituents that Trump is a walking constitutional crisis when opposing his judicial nominees is, for whatever reason, not worth your time.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s first cohort of judicial nominees reported to Capitol Hill for their confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. This should have been a prime opportunity for Democrats to take some shots at these nominees—as well as the president who put them up for these jobs—before Republicans, who enjoy a 53-47 advantage in the upper chamber, usher them along to life-tenured judgeships.
Yet if Senate Democrats really believe the country is in the midst of a constitutional crisis, you would not know it from their questions for Whitney Hermandorfer, a veteran of the right-wing culture wars whom Trump has tapped for a vacancy on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. For too many Democratic politicians, the extent to which Trump poses a serious threat to democracy depends largely on whether they are, at that moment, drafting another long, emoji-laden, green-bubble text asking you to pledge your financial support on a recurring monthly basis.
Delaware’s Chris Coons, for example, led off by noting that he was “not a reflexive no vote” on Trump’s first-term nominees, and had in fact voted to confirm some of them. Illinois’s Dick Durbin and California’s Adam Schiff lauded Federalist Society-affiliated judges who have ruled against Trump in some capacity, framing them—especially in the context of Trump’s more recent nominees—as perhaps not so bad after all. Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse, who is normally quite good at discussing judicial politics, got so wrapped up in a monologue about the split between FedSoc types and MAGA types that he failed to ask Hermandorfer any questions before his allotted time ran out.
Incredibly, all of the aforementioned Democrats performed better than Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, New Jersey’s Cory Booker, Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono, and California’s Alex Padilla, who did not say anything to Hermandorfer at all.
After a break, Hermandorfer was replaced by four nominees to district courts in Missouri, including Josh Divine, who as a college newspaper opinion columnist both advocated for bringing back literacy tests in voting, and also opined that Christians are “obligated ethically to impose their beliefs on others.” Members of a well-organized opposition party would each hammer a candidate like Divine on a different topic, in an effort to generate the sorts of juicy headlines and viral clips that can torpedo a nomination. You do not need to be a handsomely compensated political strategist to understand, for example, that “Do you still believe ‘Halfrican American’ is an appropriate term with which to describe President Barack Obama?” is a question that would probably make Divine squirm a little.
Alas, the opposition in this country is run by Democrats, only two of whom—Durbin and Padilla—deigned to ask any questions of Divine and the other nominees. The other eight Democrats on the committee elected not to stick around after lunch.
I understand that lawmakers can have scheduling conflicts, and no one can be in two places at once, and so on and so forth. But the choices they make reveal a lot about where their priorities lie. The success of Trump’s second term depends largely on the willingness of right-wing judges to rubber-stamp his myriad illegal acts, and his ability to fill vacancies with more loyalists who will promise to do the same. If you are a Democratic senator, it is impossible to expect your constituents to take seriously your warnings about budding autocracy when you’ve decided that meaningfully opposing his judicial nominees is literally not worth your time.
As JP Collins points out for Balls & Strikes this week, in a Republican-controlled Senate, publicly exposing Trump’s nominees as too embarrassing for even Republicans to vote for is basically Democrats’ only shot at notching a victory or two. This is not and will never be an easy task, really, but nominees like Divine and Hermandorfer at least offer them plenty of material to work with. For whatever reason, the Democrats can barely be bothered to show up.
As always, you can find everything we publish at ballsandstrikes.org, or follow us on Bluesky at @ballsandstrikes.org. You can get in touch by emailing us at contact@ballsandstrikes.org. Thanks for reading.
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As a VERY long time Democratic activist, I weep, I absolutely weep, when I read that the
Senate leadership apparently could not be bothered to plan ANY line of questioning for ANY
of Traitor Trump's appointees to the Federal Bench. May one ask WHY???
This is why the democratic party is even a further joke in my eyes. I live in deep red Alabama and from the looks of it the democrats have abandoned this state and many offices run unopposed and unchallenged for republicans. I grew up republican, switched to independent and have stayed that way but vote democratic just because there isn't a better choice. The republicans have slowly weeded out the good ones and all we have left are opponents like Twinkle Cavanaugh who is openly corrupt. It's just sad and highly embarrassing.
I get emails from democrats asking for donations but don't explain any real path forward other than "we gotta fight". Okay, how are you going to do that? It definitely isn't in the example they're putting forth in this column or any other visible form. Chuck Schumer is a joke and is nowhere to be seen pretty much since the election. He's written a "stern letter" to Trump and I'm sure he took it super seriously. They're a joke and the American people are the punchline unfortunately.