President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Thanks for posting, Jeff Della!

 

It’s not really news at this point, but still.

When President Trump sat down in the Oval Office with author Bob Woodward for the first of 18 eventual interviews, the president brought up judicial appointments four times and even had a list of judicial appointment orders displayed, prop-like, on the Resolute Desk — “kind of like he was cherishing it,” Woodward recounted.

Now, as Trump prepares to announce a nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday night at age 87, those interviews reveal a president animated about remaking the courts and working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to appoint conservative judges. Some of the conversations were chronicled in Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” while audio recordings of others were obtained by The Washington Post.

In a mid-December interview with Woodward, Trump boasted that he and McConnell “have broken every record” on judges, saying the issue is the majority leader’s top priority.

“You know what Mitch’s biggest thing is in the whole world? His judges,” Trump said, explaining that faced with a choice between pushing 10 ambassadors or a single judge through the Senate, “he will absolutely ask me, ‘Please, let’s get the judge approved instead of 10 ambassadors.’ ”

In January, the president bragged that he had installed 187 judges to the federal bench — making 1 in 4 circuit court judges a Trump appointee — and two to the Supreme Court.

“The only one that has a better percentage is George Washington, because he appointed 100 percent,” Trump told Woodward, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Post associate editor. “But my percentage is, you know, like, ridiculous.”

During a May interview, Trump also crowed about how President Barack Obama had left him more than 100 court vacancies to fill when he took office, referring to them as “golden nuggets.”

The numerous judicial slots Trump was able to fill upon entering the White House were a result of McConnell’s deliberate effort to block and delay Obama’s nominees — reducing the confirmation of judges to the slowest rate in more than 60 years.​

Trump brags to Woodward that he has ‘broken every record’ on appointing judges — The Washington Post

 

I honestly think Russians are paying one goober to organize a bunch more for this truck/boat shit.

 

Any
Communist
Buys in

 

Paid in rubels.

 

I just don't think it's a lock that the Pubes have the time to drive ACB home.

First, you have to wait for Twitchy to formalize the pick. It's a push whether or not he waits until RBG is actually buried, but I digress.

Then you have the October recess in which vulnerable Pubes must go home to defend their seats. Snapper will have to gin up much righteous indignation to force these incumbents to hold fast.

Then you have the actual elections where the die will be cast. After that is the GOP Salty Duck session. At that point we will obtain the measure of Schumer's gonads.

 

^ That's like a twentieth of what the PTBARNUM Act of 2021 will entail.

 

The fuck?

In a stunning declaration of authority, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, this week barred the nation’s health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, from signing any new rules regarding the nation’s foods, medicines, medical devices and other products, including vaccines.

Going forward, Mr. Azar wrote in a Sept. 15 memorandum obtained by The New York Times, such power “is reserved to the Secretary.” The bulletin was sent to heads of operating and staff divisions within H.H.S.

It’s unclear if or how the memo would change the vetting and approval process for coronavirus vaccines, three of which are in advanced clinical trials in the United States. Political appointees, under pressure from the president, have taken a string of steps over the past few months to interfere with the standard scientific and regulatory processes at the health agencies. For example, a much criticized guideline on testing for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists, and was posted on the agency’s public website over their objections. It was reversed on Friday.

Outside observers were alarmed by the new memo and worried that it could contribute to a public perception of political meddling in science-based regulatory decisions. Dr. Mark McClellan, who formerly headed the F.D.A. and now runs Duke University’s health policy center, praised the agency’s work on vaccine development but said the policy change was ill-timed.

“We’re in the midst of a pandemic, when trust in the public health agency is needed more than ever,” he said. “So, I’m not sure what is to be gained with a management change with respect to F.D.A. when they are doing such critical work.”

Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former associate commissioner of the F.D.A., called the new policy “a power grab.”

Many rules issued by federal health agencies are signed by lawyers or by the heads of agencies, including the F.D.A., under the umbrella of H.H.S. The new memo requires the secretary to sign them, which Dr. Lurie said could lead to delays in the regulatory process.​

In ‘Power Grab,’ Health Secretary Azar Asserts Authority Over F.D.A.

Trying to decide if this tweet is an overreaction.

 

Moon’s scenario sounds great except for one thing. If that justice is seated before the election, it gives the Republicans a 6-3 majority on the court. I believe Roberts would do the right thing. But when Trump loses and protests the election, 5 Republican stooges in black robes will declare him the winner.

 

Robert Caro's LBJ biography will probably run close to 2,500 or 3,000 pages before it's done. And almost every page is great reading.

 

Hillbilly white trash racists, there's a big tent. They can't stop what's coming. And it ain't all waiting on them.