WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is vowing that Democrats will not allow President Donald Trump to put “a right-winger” on the Supreme Court once they take power, raising the possibility that his party could block a presidential nominee if there is a vacancy in the next two years.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Schumer would not say if he would hold a Supreme Court vacancy open until after the next presidential election, as former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell did in 2016. But he said that Democrats are “not going to allow any crappy nominees” to be confirmed to the Supreme Court — or to the lower courts or Trump’s Cabinet, either.

“The bottom line is we’re not going to allow a right-winger on the court,” Schumer said.

Schumer’s pledge came two days after Democrats won a decisive Senate majority in the midterm elections — a feat few predicted a year ago, when Schumer was facing intense criticism from progressives within his party and Senate Republicans were betting that a favorable map and backing from Trump would help them keep power.

While there is still frustration with Schumer in some corners of the party, the New Yorker is expected to easily be reelected as leader by his caucus after leading them to wins in Republican-leaning states across the country. Democrats could have as many as 56 seats in the Senate if they win Mississippi and Alaska, which still have not been called — “a durable majority,” Schumer predicts, that has been 20 years in the making as he has been directly or indirectly in charge of his party’s Senate campaign operation.

  • Gpennyhigh@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Please be more clear that good faith is not in the maga side, Dems still try to work by the rules and do good for We The People. It’s not perfect and room to improve, but the platform with policies that are good for the majority and reduce artificial scarcity, wherever they get passed, and the one that didn’t start the concentration camps. That’s a huge difference, very much not the same.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      I mean, I’d call the general refusal/inability to comprehend basic game theory as applied to two-party legislative politics just makes them predominately useful idiots. I’ll have more faith in them when I see literally anything more than performative outrage.