Congressional Democrats have gone all in on abortion, and now they’re setting their sights on an unlikely target: President Joe Biden.
Biden reportedly made a secret deal with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to nominate a pro-life Republican to a lifetime judgeship in Kentucky, The Courier-Journal reported Wednesday.
Other Democrats weren’t happy.
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Charles Booker, a Senate candidate from Kentucky, denounced the Biden-McConnell agreement as “a deal with the devil.” and “the people of Kentucky are crushed in the process,” Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker tweeted after The Courier-Journal broke the story Wednesday night.
“The people of Kentucky are crushed,” Booker continued. “At a time when we are fighting to protect human rights, this is a complete slap in the face. This is some bulls–t.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, also slammed Biden for the choice.
“If the president makes that nomination, it is indefensible,” he said, according to the paper.
Beshear reportedly added that Biden has not yet formally nominated Meredith. “I hope [that] means in the very least it’s on pause.”
Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., confirmed to the local paper that Biden is planning to nominate Chad Meredith to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Yarmuth took issue with Meredith’s pro-life stances and his ties to the unpopular former governor.
“Why you would pick him to fill a federal vacancy when you’re a Democratic president is beyond me,” Yarmuth said, according to the paper.
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Yarmuth had some theories as to why Biden made the deal with McConnell. Speaking to The Courier-Journal, the congressman said that McConnell would agree to stop blocking Biden’s some of Biden’s other nominations, like the president’s recent pick for a federal prosecutor.
Still, Yarmuth wasn’t happy. He described Biden’s plan as “some kind of effort to appease Mitch McConnell, which is something this state and country should be very upset about.”
“We were informed by White House staff that this nomination was coming,” the congressman continued. “I expressed my objections to it in the strongest terms I use… Mitch McConnell was not elected by anyone outside of Kentucky, yet he is imposing his individual will on the federal judiciary and the president of the United States just because he has the power to do it, not because it makes sense good sense for our country.”
The President is making a deal with the devil and once again, the people of Kentucky are crushed in the process.
At a time when we are fighting to protect human rights, this is a complete slap in the face.
This is some bullshit. https://t.co/A4LV6PxSeK
— Charles Booker (@Booker4KY) June 29, 2022
After a nomination by the president, Meredith would need 51 Senate votes to become a federal judge. Even in today’s 50-50 Senate, he would likely win confirmation, given Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin’s record of voting for Republican judges like Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Meredith, like most judicial nominees, would likely field questions about abortion during his confirmation hearings, especially given the recent salience of the issue.
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Biden, a former senator on the judiciary committee, became known for attempting to obstruct Republican judges. He presided over the hearings of Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, but he did not vote for them.
Still, Biden has faced the Democrats’ criticism for rushing the Thomas hearings. He has also faced criticism for being insufficiently pro-choice, having joined the Senate before Roe v. Wade.
As president, he has nominated 69 judges confirmed to lifetime positions on federal courts. That’s more than any Democrat since John F. Kennedy.
The Horn editorial team