Last week was four years in the making — starting when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rolled the dice and chose to block the confirmation of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, hoping for a Donald Trump victory in 2016. The gambit worked. Since then, a near-endless campaign has been underway, designed to secure as many judicial seats as possible in the years between presidential elections.
Nevertheless, the Trump Administration is on a recent judicial losing streak. Rather than considering how to craft legislative victories, the president instead turned to his platform of choice to vent his outrage and, essentially, lay out his re-election playbook in a series of tweets. “These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out the Supreme Court,” the President declared, “are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans.” Soon after, the President declared that “we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court,” and promised to unveil a list of potential Supreme Court nominees before Election Day.
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