Mitch McConnell is working to keep Trumpism alive — no matter what American voters say in 2020
Published in Salon
Fearful of losing the Oval Office and knowing the highly-charged 2020 election will kick into high gear in January of 2020, political insiders claim that Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is trampling all the rules of the Senate to get as many of Donald Trump’s court nominees approved as quickly as he can.
According to a report in Politico, Trump plans to use packing the courts with right-wing judges as a campaign boast to rally his base – and McConnell is doing all he can to make Trump’s wishes come true.
“Trump’s team believes that stacking the judicial system with conservative judges galvanizes the base, demonstrates his ability to follow through on a 2016 campaign promise and will help win over crucial 2020 states like Colorado, Florida and North Carolina,” the report states, before adding, ” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has done everything he can to help quicken the pace, changing procedural rules to limit debate time and lower the voting threshold Supreme Court justices must clear to get approved.”
According to Daniel Goldberg, legal director at the Alliance for Justice, “I am not sure how they can speed it up anymore. Mitch McConnell has already eroded almost every rule and norm to expedite Trump’s far-right judges with as little transparency and vetting as possible.”
The report notes that conservative activists who are helping shepherd like-minded jurists through the approval process have an underlying strategy to pack the benches with younger judges who can hand down rulings for generations.