Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut who first disclosed Neil Gorsuch’s misgivings about President Trump has a new message. He wants the judge to go public with his criticism.
Blumenthal met with the Supreme Court nominee privately earlier this week, and relayed that Gorsuch expressed issues with Trump’s criticism of the federal judiciary system, calling them “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”
Of course the White House countered by saying that Gorsuch’s words were misrepresented and that his comments were not meant to specifically refer to Trump’s comments about the travel ban this week. Blumenthal begs to differ:
“There is no doubt in my mind that he was referring to these attacks. President Trump ought to listen to them and his own White House staff.
Blumenthal also brought up another salient point: it could help with Gorsuch’s confirmation. If Gorsuch shows that he is not afraid to take on the president and his cronies publicly, Democrats (and Republicans) might make his path to the Supreme Court a lot easier. Blumenthal said:
“He must publicly condemn them. Not behind closed doors, in the privacy of my office or my colleagues’ — but publicly, clearly, directly… He needs to demonstrate his independence. Otherwise, the American people will have justifiable doubts that he will be more than a rubber stamp.”
Blumenthal has a good point. Trump has shown repeated disrespect for the judiciary branch of our government. On top of that, anybody appointed by Trump so far appears to be a yes-man put in place to brown-nose President Snowflake. These people are now receiving major backlash (Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos to name two) and are now going to receive major push-back from both Democrats and the American people for years to come. Gorsuch can avoid this if he shows that he is competent, intelligent, and devoted to the job and to the Constitution.
Come on, Neil. You know you want to.
Watch Blumenthal’s comments on Anderson Cooper’s show here:
