WASHINGTON — President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court called the president’s recent attacks on federal judges “demoralizing” and “disheartening” in a private meeting, his spokesman confirms to the Daily News.
Judge Neil Gorsuch, who Trump nominated for a vacancy on the Supreme Court a week ago, told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in a private meeting that he wasn’t pleased with Trump’s recent public remarks attacking the federal judges who are weighing whether or not to reinstate his refugee and travel ban.
“He certainly expressed to me that he is disheartened by the demoralizing and abhorrent comments made by President Trump about the judiciary,” Blumenthal told reporters after meeting with Gorsuch Wednesday afternoon.
A spokesman for Gorsuch confirmed the comments.
“He did not use the word abhorrent but used the word disheartening and demoralizing,” Ron Bonjean, a Gorsuch spokesman who has worked to help confirm Trump’s nominees, told the Daily News in an email.
Gorsuch’s surprising comments come after Trump took aim at the judges who are hearing whether or not to reinstate his executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., even if they have visas to do so.
Gorsuch’s comments was in reaction to Trump attacking the federal judges who are hearing whether or not to reinstate his executive order.
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“I don’t ever want to call a court biased so I won’t call a court biased … but courts seem to be so political and it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read a statement and do what’s right,” Trump said during a speech to police chiefs in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning. “If these judges wanted to in my opinion help the court in terms of respect for the court they’d do what they should be doing. It’s so sad.”
Trump has also tweeted attacks against the “so-called judge” from Seattle who’d suspended the ban over the weekend. During the campaign, he famously attacked a judge of Mexican descent who was presiding over a case involving Trump University, saying he couldn’t be unbiased because of his ethnicity.
The comments could help Gorsuch in his confirmation hearings, as Democrats have repeatedly stressed that one of their biggest concerns about him is whether he can show judicial independence from the man who put him on the bench. Blumenthal expressed skepticism after his meeting that he’d vote for Gorsuch because of his very conservative judicial record, and Republicans need eight Democrats to vote for cloture to allow an up-or-down vote on his confirmation. A handful have already suggested they’re ready to do so.
But it’s unclear how the comments will sit with Trump himself, who is known to have a temper — and hold a grudge.
