President Donald Trump (!) was not happy when Seattle federal judge James Robart issued a nationwide stay on Trump’s executive order concerning travel from seven majority-Muslim nations. The president has attacked Robart in more than one tweet (!), calling the George W. Bush appointee a “so-called judge” who will have blood on his hands in the event of a jihadist terrorist attack.
Given that judges of all ideological stripes tend to believe in the importance of a strongly independent judiciary, it was thus natural to wonder what Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch thought of the president’s remarks. We now have our answer. Via CNN:
In a meeting with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Gorsuch, who’s largely been silent since Trump nominated him last week, took exception to Trump calling a federal judge in Seattle a “so-called judge” after blocking the President’s travel ban.
“He said very specifically that they were demoralizing and disheartening and he characterized them very specifically that way,” Blumenthal said of Gorsuch.
A spokesman for Gorsuch confirmed Blumenthal’s account.
What happens now? Will President Crazypants, who spent the morning getting angry at a department store because it dropped his daughter’s clothing line, retaliate by attacking his own nominee? Probably! From a quick perusal of this list, I don’t see any precedent for a president withdrawing his own nominee out of spite, but there’s a first time for everything, including the collapse of American democracy.
