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Washington, D.C.
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s show of independence from President Donald Trump does not appear to be paying dividends among the Democratic senators he needs to win confirmation — Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer least of all.
A day after Gorsuch told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a private meeting that he found Trump’s attacks on judges “demoralizing and disheartening,” Schumer said the remark “is not close to good enough.”
Without stating his dismay in public, the Denver-based appeals court judge “did not show independence,” Schumer said Wednesday on the Senate floor. Rather, he “showed an ability to desire the appearance of independence without actually asserting it.”
Schumer went even further in a television interview on MSNBC Wednesday night, suggesting that Gorsuch’s “demoralizing and disheartening” statement was a feint by Republicans to sway the Democratic senators he needs to win confirmation.
“I think it’s a way for the Republicans and the president to try to show independence where none really exists” Schumer said.
During a courtesy call to Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will hold confirmation hearings, Gorsuch volunteered his implied criticism of Trump’s harsh words against judges.
Trump’s targets were those presiding over legal review of his temporary travel ban on refugees and citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations in the Middle East.
Trump described the stay on the travel and refugee ban imposed by a Seattle-based federal judge as the “ridiculous” work of a “so-called judge.”
And Wednesday morning, the day after a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco weighed an appeal of the stay, Trump said “courts seem to be so political.”
Blumenthal’s recounting of what Gorsuch told him in the meeting set off a firestorm in Washington, one to which Trump added fuel when he tweeted that Blumenthal, “who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie), now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?”
Trump was referring to statements by Blumenthal in his 2010 campaign suggesting he was a Marine Corps Reserves veteran of Vietnam when, in fact, he’d never fought in Vietnam. Blumenthal apologized for the remark and said he’d meant to say he was a Vietnam-era veteran.
He won election to the Senate in 2010 handily, as well as re-election last year.
Democratic senators including Schumer rallied to Blumenthal’s defense. Schumer said the president had Blumenthal in “a cheap way.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s spokesman, Marc Brumer, said “she wasn’t privy to the conversation, but she thinks it’s concerning if he says he has these views in private but will not do so publicly.”
Gillibrand has already stated she will vote against Gorsuch. Schumer has said he remains undecided, although the nominee’s failure to say critical words about Trump publicly was “not a good start.”
Blumenthal declined to get into the specifics of Trump’s Vietnam charge, suggesting it was old news.
His spokeswoman, Maria McElwain said that Blumenthal stood by his characterization that Gorsuch’s remark was specific to Trump’s criticism of judges.
Gorsuch, 49, a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, is an admirer of the justice whose seat he’d be taking, conservative icon Antonin Scalia. Scalia died a year ago and Senate Republicans denied President Obama an opportunity to fill the vacancy.
Under Senate rules, it takes 60 votes to confirm a Supreme Court justice. With the Senate divided 52-48 in favor of Republicans, Gorsuch would need at least two Democratic votes to win confirmation.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his fellow Republicans could elect to “go nuclear,” meaning it would take only a simple majority — 51 votes — to confirm.
Schumer and other Democrats believe there is enough resistance within the Republican caucus to prevent the “nuclear option.” Trump has urged McConnell to pursue that course if necessary.
dan@hearstdc.com
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