Outgoing President Joe Biden might have only two months left in his term, but his legacy will last for decades thanks to Republicans who failed to show up this week to oppose Biden judicial nominees.
Big-name members of the GOP, including Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio were absent on Monday as Democratic senators approved more than a dozen Biden appointments to lifetime positions on the federal bench.
Republicans in the Senate who actually showed up for the fight were furious. And so was President-elect Donald Trump.
“If we don’t show up, we lose,” North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said, according to The Hill.
“I don’t care what the reasons were. We have fewer than 15 scheduled legislative days. You have to show up. Period. End of story. There’s nothing more important.”
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a man who’s known for an acid wit that cuts straight to the heart of an issue, described his level of frustration as “on a scale of 1 to 10, a 12.”
“Because a number of President Biden’s nominees, particularly at the courts of appeal, they think they’re qualified to be a federal judge if they’ve seen ‘My Cousin Vinny,’ and I don’t agree with them.
“Their performance in committee demonstrated that none of them were Oliver Wendell Scalia,” he said, combining the names of a pair of the late, great Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Antonin Scalia.
“They did horrible jobs in committee, and we had the votes to prevent them from being confirmed, but some of the folks on our side couldn’t be here, and it’s frustrating.”
Should Republican lawmakers be showing up for crucial votes no matter what else they have going on?
Vance had initially attempted to defend his absence by claiming that Republicans would have lost the votes anyway and that he was working on long-range issues, such as a search for a new FBI director when Trump takes office.
However, The Hill noted, at least one of the Biden nominees — Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd — would have been defeated if all Republicans had shown up, thanks to a “no” vote from independent Sen. Joe Manchin and the absence of Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.
Kidd’s nomination had drawn criticism because, among other things, he’d failed to disclose two cases involving child sex abuse in which his lenient rulings had been overturned by a higher court, according to a Washington Examiner report in June.
Kidd was confirmed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the Southeastern United States.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis published a scathing post on the social media platform X criticizing Republican senators for the development.
This leftist judge would have been voted down and the seat on the important 11th circuit would have been filled by Donald Trump next year had Republicans showed up.
Now, the leftist judge will have a lifetime appointment and the people of FL, AL and GA will suffer the… https://t.co/7h8uyfvLUq
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) November 19, 2024
On Tuesday, Trump himself published a social media post demanding that Republican senators “Show Up and Hold the Line.”
TRUMP: “Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line – No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!” pic.twitter.com/y615jLmEhd
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) November 19, 2024
“No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!” he wrote.
Vance was in the Capitol to vote within an hour of that post going public, according to the Washington Examiner.
But by then, the damage was done.
“We had some of these judges killed dead as Woodrow Wilson, and our vote wasn’t here,” Kennedy told the Washington Examiner.
“We had people not here to vote, and I’m not going to bubblewrap it. There’s no excuse for that. Our job is to be here and vote.”
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