I believe that Trump should fill the Supreme Court vacancy right away.
First, is the pragmatic reason that is election has the very real possibility of being highly contested, and having a 4-4 SCOTUS split on an election decision would be a disaster. Trump nominating and the Republicans confirming a 9th justice is critical for them.
Second, we all know that the Democrats play dirty. Trump and the Republicans might as well drop that bomb just in case he loses.
The Democrats have decided to throw out the threat that if Trump does this, “nothing is off the table.”
Final quote from @SenSchumer from Senate Democrats call – a warning: “Let me be clear: if Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans move forward with this, then nothing is off the table for next year. Nothing is off the table.”
— Mike Emanuel ?? (@MikeEmanuelFox) September 19, 2020
I want to know what has currently been left off the table?
Democrats are threatening to pack the court.
If he holds a vote in 2020, we pack the court in 2021.
It’s that simple.
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) September 19, 2020
If Sen. McConnell and @SenateGOP were to force through a nominee during the lame duck session—before a new Senate and President can take office—then the incoming Senate should immediately move to expand the Supreme Court. 1/2 https://t.co/BDYQ0KVmJe
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) September 19, 2020
Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) September 19, 2020
Okay… but the Democrats said the same thing after both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Either it’s an idle threat or they are going to do it regardless of the appointment of Ginsburg’s replacement. Either way, they put that one on the table a couple of years ago.
Maybe they impeach him again over bullshit.
In a slightly bizarre exchange, Stephanopoulos asks if the House would impeach Trump or Barr if Senate GOP tries to vote on a SCOTUS nom during lame duck session (to stall the confirmation), and Pelosi refuses to rule it out: "We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver." pic.twitter.com/aoXPh6cFlt
— Jerry Dunleavy ?? (@JerryDunleavy) September 20, 2020
Except that already did that.
Then there is the threat of protests, violence, and riots.
https://twitter.com/rezaaslan/status/1307107507131875330
https://twitter.com/realJoelWillett/status/1307364144316907521
Well… we already had that too. The riots that have happened since the death of George Floyd have cost upwards of $2 billion.
The only two things I can think of that haven’t been put on the table are the Democrats backing an actual military coup to kill the President and Vice President and install Nancy Pelosi as the Commander in Chief, or encouraging their Antifa thugs to engage in the open mass murder of Trump supporters.
So what new thing could they threaten Trump with that they haven’t already threatened Trump with?
The Democrats have already made it clear that they would rather destroy the country than lose control of it, so what else do we really have to lose?
I don’t know what worries me more … That your rundown has missed an option, or that it hasn’t.
It’s entirely possible Pelosi and Schumer are just blowing smoke and they’ve got nothing legal left. But their followers … we’ve seen at least some of what they’re willing to do already, and the Dems have gotten good at, as Michael Bane puts it, chumming for monsters.
Typical leftist BS, threatening to do something that they were planning on doing regardless, but now it’ll be your fault. All in the name of “Saving Democracy.”
On the lame duck thing, that’s been done before. In today’s WSJ there’s an op-ed by Rivkin and Grossman (constitutional lawyers who often write on such subjects):
“The week after President Jimmy Carter lost his 1980 re-election bid, he announced the judicial nomination of a close ally of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy. The nomination sailed through the Senate, which confirmed the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge 80-10 less than a month later, six weeks before Inauguration Day. That nominee, Stephen Breyer, now sits on the Supreme Court.”
They go on to mention that Biden voted in favor of that lame duck appointment.
BTW, I didn’t consider this before, but last night one of a pair of lawyers commenting on the situation on Fox News mentioned that, if necessary to fix the tied court problem, Trump could make a recess appointment. I checked the text of the Constitution and sure enough, I was wrong when I thought that power is limited to executive branch offices. It’s general for any Presidential appointment.
Stolen from elsewhere:
Things that were already (apparently) on the table:
1. Shooting up GOP baseball games
2. Allowing supporters to burn cities.
3. Staging coups against democratically elected president.
4. FBI collusion/perjury traps.
5. Leaking classified information.
Trump should call them on their threat, and offer to pack the court now.