Minnesota prosecutor Laura Provinzino has prosecuted a number of extremely serious sexual assault and human trafficking cases throughout her career, including the prosecution of “Minnesota’s Jeffrey Epstein.” She is now poised to join the federal bench.
Background
Born in 1975 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Provinzino attended Lewis & Clark College, receiving a B.A. in 1998. She then attended Oxford University and then Yale University Law School, graduating in 2003.
After graduation, Provinzino clerked for Judge Diana Murphy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She then spent two years as a Wellstone legal fellow with The Advocates for Human Rights and then joined the Minneapolis office of Robins Kaplan LLP as a litigation associate. In 2010, Provinzino left the firm to become a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, where she currently serves.
History of the Seat
Provinzino has been nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to replace Judge Wilhemina Wright, who resigned from the bench on February 15, 2024.
Legal Career
Provinzino began her legal career as a litigation associate at Robins Kaplan LLP, where she worked on civil litigation. Notably, Provinzino notably represented the parents of a disabled child who suffered significant physical abuse in a suit against the Mayo Clinic for their failure to fulfill their mandatory reporting requirements after getting news of the abuse. See Becker v. Mayo Found., 737 N.W.2d 200 (Minn. 2007) (Anderson, J.). The case concluded with a jury trial that ended in a verdict for the Mayo Clinic.
In 2010, Provinzino shifted to become a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, where she worked in the Major Crimes Division. See, e.g., United States v. Mathis, 992 F.3d 686 (8th Cir. 2021). While with the office, Provinzino worked as the office’s coordinator of the Project Safe Childhood, which worked to prosecute the sexual exploitation of children, and then as the coordinator for human trafficking prosecutions. Notably, Provinzino prosecuted Anton Lazzaro, also known as Minnesota’s “Jeffrey Epstein.” See Kirsten Swanson, Meet the Woman Who Prosecuted ‘Minnesota’s Jeffrey Epstein’, KSTP.com, Sept. 12, 2023, https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/meet-the-women-who-prosecuted-minnesotas-jeffrey-epstein/. Provinzino also argued appeals during her time with the office, successfully defending convictions for the trafficking of a juvenile male from the Dominican Republic for work in a restaurant. See United States v. Sukhtipyaroge, 1 F.4th 603 (8th Cir. 2021).
Political Activity
Provinzino has made a number of political donations throughout her career, all to Democrats.
Overall Assessment
Minnesota prosecutor Laura Provinzino has had a career that parallels that of U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan, who was, like Provinzino, an associate at Robins Kaplan LLP and a federal prosecutor. Bryan was confirmed comfortably and, it appears, despite a closing window, that Provinzino should as well.
The Vetting Room 
She seems like a highly qualified nominee. Being a Rhodes Scholar & her prosecutions of the “Jeffrey Epstein of Minnesota” should be able to gain her at least a couple Republican votes. She may become the front runner for the 8th should a seat become vacant in a future Democrat administration.
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She was not on my radar but I expect her to be a contender for the 8th circuit if Loken steps down.
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Provinzino seems like a well-qualified and mainstream nominee. Her academic and professional credentials are strong. She doesn’t sound like she’d generate strong opposition.
Not many people are thinking about judicial confirmations right now.
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I can’t pull up the link but it seems Menendez denies any reports that he is going to resign…..
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Aileen Cannon seems to be working hard for that elevation. Since Trump is more likely than not to return to the WH (wishful thinking aside), how much of a chance do folks think Cannon has for elevation to CA11?
Of the 5 FL seats:
1: Hopefully, Kidd will soon be confirmed to replace Wilson
2 & 3: Obama appointees Adalberto Jordan and Robin Rosenbaum are still relatively young and hopefully can stick it out for 4 more years.
4: Trump’s first official FL appointee to CA11, Robert Luck, isn’t on anyone’s radar ATM for elevation to SCOTUS
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Those 4 seats are probably unlikely to give Cannon a path to CA11.
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5: Trump’s second FL appointee, Barbara Lagoa, was on his SCOTUS list and probably will be again. Maybe this is how Cannon gets on CA11.
(To state the obvious, no one can account for involuntary vacancies)
Or,
I do not think it’s unimaginable for Trump to nominate Cannon directly to SCOTUS. The only question is, would enough Republican senators support this (Collins, Murkowski)?
In my opinion, Lagoa would be too close to 60 for Trump to want to elevate. So he may very well decide to go with a lacky not yet in her mid-40s. Not only would he get to appoint a Latina, he’d also get to appoint an immigrant to SCOTUS.
Dark dark days ahead.
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Age wouldn’t be as much of an issue for Trump to appoint a justice on SCOTUS since it would just be to preserve a 6-3 majority. Besides, the upside to a Lagoa appointment would far outweight the loss of a decade if he picked somebody in their high 40’s or low 50’s. I still say James Ho is likely to be the first pick though should he return to the WH.
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While I could see Ho getting the appointment, Cannon has shown more loyalty to Trump, and he’ll take that into account when he has to make the selection.
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Ho will have real trouble unless there is a solid GOP Senate majority. He wrote a concurrence basically greenlighting Judge Kacsmaryk’s opinion on the abortion pill, which was rejected by SCOTUS 9-0. If Trump wants to reduce focus on abortion, there are plenty of conservative options who are not so obviously controversial.
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I think Cannon would be appointed to SCOTUS if the Republicans have at least 52 senate seats. Besides Murkowski and Collins, who else would feasibly oppose her? With at least Thomas highly likely for a retirement, Trump should get at least one vacancy, and probably at least one more as well, either from Sotomayor kicking the can or someone like Roberts or Alito retiring. I do think it’s already worth heavily looking into what Republicans will be doing with the judiciary in 2025 and 2026 with presumably all three branches of government. Might they even try and pass a bill to expand the number of judgeships, but create all of the seats at the same time and not split them up, so FedSoc could appoint all of them? I think a lot of change is on the table coming next year, no matter if you like it or not.
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Dark days ahead perhaps. But stay optimistic . The election race is fluid and everything can change on a dime as the last few weeks have shown.
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Polling has stayed consistent though. Nothing is changing anything right now.
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Trump could win… Biden could win… The election was always going to be close no matter what. The days of a Reagan type landslide are virtually over.
113 days is a long time in politics. If Biden can look more like the Biden of the last 3 days instead of the previous 3 weeks, his numbers will tick up. There are things not in his control so a little luck could also help. The most glaring would be an end to the war in Gaza which isn’t out of the realm of possibility in the next couple of months.
Putin would probably rather saw off his right arm then end the war in Ukraine before the election so that’s out. But a little more good news on the economy, inflation & nothing crazy at the border & I can see a path to Biden winning. Also let’s not underestimate Trump screwing up in the next 113 days. He has been pretty controlled the last couple of weeks. I wouldn’t put my money on him remaining unhinged for 113 more days.
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Respectfully, I’m pretty sure Trump can do literally anything he wants at this point and his supporters and bystanders will eat it up.
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I would not put it past Trump at all to nominate her straight to SCOTUS. Like you said, Collins and Murkowski may put up a fight, but if he has the senate seats he will likely try.
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@Frank
Agree with some of this, but I think Trump is more likely to get at least 2 more opportunities to appoint to SCOTUS based on voluntary retirements. Alito’s wife all but confirmed he wants to retire in the next 4 years (while a Republican is in the WH, of course). And who knows what Roberts will do. Kennedy chose to retire and give Trump his second opportunity – Roberts is more conservative and even though he might not love Trump, I can definitely see him retiring under him, if only to ensure that a Republican names his replacement.
I also agree that the size of the Republican majority matters. But I would caution you against depending on Collins and Murkowski to save you. Collins went along with Kavanaugh, and only voted against Barrett because she was in such a close reelection. I think it’s safer to assume that Republican senators are vastly more likely than not to support a Republican president’s SCOTUS pick.
(Lilee, it’s less about optimism and more about facing the probable. Polls swing and can be wrong. But an awful lot of polls over an awfully long period will have to be wrong for the result to look anything other than what they’ve been saying up to now. But of course, there’s always outlier polls to take solace in, if you’re so inclined.)
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Yeah, I agree that Collins and Murkowski would likely vote for Cannon or someone else. I just think they are the only two senators right now where I could see them possibly voting no on a Trump SCOTUS pick. Completely agree on the last paragraph as well.
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Trump is set to announce his VP pick later today. I am hoping my guess is right & it’s JD Vance. Let’s get him on the campaign trial every day from now until ethe October recess.
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Rubio or Scott would also do the job from this perspective.
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Rubio and Burgum I guess have been notified that it’s not it, I thought I read something about a motorcade in Ohio, so I think Vance is looking more and more likely.
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Please Lords of the Judiciary, no mistrial !
https://politicalwire.com/2024/07/15/menendez-jury-asks-judge-whether-unanimity-needed/
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Did they really ask that question. I think anybody who has watched more than two episodes of Matlock knows the jury has to be unanimous… Lol
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That’s dramatized for television. The jurors’ question isn’t so ridiculous in reality. There’s a long Post-Civil/Jim Crow War history of non-unanimity jury verdicts, especially for a racist outcome .
The last two states to allow non-unanimity verdicts are Louisiana and Oregon. And only in 2020 did SCOTUS overturn those laws (after upholding them in the 1970s).
Good on the jurors for asking and confirming. It shows that they take this civic duty seriously, and that we might be looking at a hung jury. Though, this clarification could draw in holdout jurors and make them all coalesce around a guilty verdict.
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(Sorry for the typos, can’t fix them after posting…)
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@Gavi
Uuuggghhh… No worries, we all know Word Press needs an edit function. Do you know how many times I have press SEND & then realized I had a spelling error too. Hell I might have one in this reply… Haaaaa
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The Trump jury asked a similar question.
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Great VP pick! Atp we need all the Senate R vacancies we can get
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With Vance on the OH ticket with Trump, I think it’ll make Senator Brown’s reelection that more challenging, even if he’s been leading in a lot of the polls up until now. Split ticket voting has been going the way of the dodo for a while. Nothing boosts same-party down ballot races like a home stater on the ballot.
People keep talking about missed votes. What indication do we have that Schumer will take advantage of this? We’ve had many opportunities where we know Republicans can’t be in DC and still Schumer doesn’t line up the party line nominees for a vote. The 1 or 2 confirmations that may result from Vance’s absences is nothing compared to losing Brown’s seat.
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Last summer Schumer took advantage of Tim Scott’s prolonged absence from the Senate during his brief presidential campaign. Dale Ho, Choudhury, Merle, and Bloomekatz were all confirmed while Scott was on the campaign trail, and were all 50-49 votes (50-48 for Bloomekatz). Vera and Rikelman were also confirmed during that time period but Vera actually had Manchin’s vote (but no Republican votes) and Rikelman still had Manchin/Collins/Murkowski.
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@Gavi
I was silent…but I’ve BEEN leery of a JD Vance VP nomination precisely because it could well pump up Republican voter turnout in Ohio to vote against Brown while voting Trump-Vance.
But still, Brown is a very effective campaigner…and hopefully Harris and other Dems can likewise effectively prosecute the case against Vance as the jaw droppingly venal political prostitute he is.
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Count me surprised, I didn’t think it would be J.D. Vance. He has only 2 years governing experience.
There may be Senate hearings questioning the Secret Service. This could delay judicial confirmations.
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If we’re mostly agreed that Trump would put a spectacularly unqualified & incompetent Aileen Cannon on the Supreme Court if he has 52 Republicans in the Senate, it’s not the least bit surprising to me that he would put a blatantly unqualified JD Vance on his ticket…to the extent that it’s EXCLUSIVELY Trump’s call. LOL
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I don’t think Trump will choose Cannon because she doesn’t have any contacts in DC who fight for her.
Given the history of past nominations by Trump the outgoing justice will want one of their former clerks.
If Thomas leaves it will be James Ho and if it Alito then it would be Mike Lee.
That’s just speculation even though the corporate media along with some spineless Dems are endeavoring to create a narrative that Biden can’t win.
It’s too early and I remember when Bill Clinton was trailing Ross Perot and GHW Bush in the 1992 Election.
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@Ads
I think that Alieen Cannon is headed for the 11th Circuit if Trump wins and his party has at least 53 Senate members.
I agree with Shawnee68 that if the aging Clarence Thomas retires, James Ho would be the front-runner to succeed him.
If Samuel Alito retires, I could see someone like Kate Todd or Allison Jones Rushing being nominated.
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Don’t think that would interfere with nominations being confirmed. I think the Homeland Security Committee has oversight on the Secret Service, although Judiciary could hold hearings as they have oversight on the DOJ/FBI I believe. The next judicial nominations hearing is set to be 7/31, so any hearings on the Secret Service would likely be before then, and I highly doubt they’d interfere with the business meetings we should be having on the 25th and 8/1 to vote out judges.
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testing
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A new 10th circuit decision held that HHS has the right to terminate a grant given to Oklahoma because they refused to contain even neutral family planning information that contained abortion.
It was a 2-1 decision with the dissenting judge being ……..
Judge Federico
To me the dissent reads more like agreement on the merits than decision made by Federico in strict adherence with SCOTUS etc.
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The majority was made up of Reagan appointee Judge Ebel and Obama appointee Judge Bacharach, hardly progressive in anyway shape or form.
The dissent rests on the Weldon amendment which bans discrimination against health entities that don’t want to give a referral for an abortion. However, the majority points out HHS gave Oklahoma numerous other avenues and options including providing themselves just the national hotline number where all the information given neutrally.
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Wish Schumer would have the cloture vote on Mangi now, deliberately lose it, switch his vote to no for procedural reasons, and have the reconsideration vote lying in wait for when the attendance is just right.
Currently, with the two days ripening period for cloture votes, a Mangi vote would be telegraphed long in advance, but if the above were already done, the Mangi reconsideration vote could be sprung on a moment’s notice when Vance and other republicans are absent. This happened with previous judicial nominations (Freeman? Abudu? I forget who exactly, but more than once.)
I wish he had had this in reserve for the Thursday after Juneteenth — we could have already confirmed Mangi, or at least invoked cloture. (Also could’ve confirmed Julie Su that day this way, since she would have only needed one GOP hour in between cloture and confirmation votes if the Dems waived theirs.) Schumer just does not play the rules like he should, like Mitch did. Drives me crazy.
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I can’t see Vance returning to senate for the final weeks this month and the 3 weeks in Sept.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/07/16/how-trump-will-use-j-d-vance-on-the-campaign-trail/
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With Collins and Murkowski, if their votes are needed on SCOTUS nominees, they will provide them while doing a dog and pony show to convince people they’re moderates and that no way would they vote yes on a judge they think would undo abortion/LGBT rights etc.
Or they’ll do a tag team where one votes yes and the other votes no so they can appear moderate to voters they’ll need.
Either way, anyone who’s counting on them to save the day from bad SCOTUS nominees or other wise is fooling themselves.
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I agree, I don’t think those two will “save” us. If the senate is 50-50 or 51R-49D then they may check some of the Trump WHs worst impulse. Probably reject a handful of district/appellate judges. But I wouldn’t count on more than that.
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Yep. Collins will run up the score on “no” votes on Republican presidential judicial nominees when her vote isn’t needed, but when it’s needed, she’s there for them.
But I will concede that she has voted for a lot of Biden’s nominees, so she’s better than the typical reactionary Republicans like Hawley & Johnson.
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Senator Menendez has been found guilty
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He is guilty as sin. We have been on this blog discussing for years even before he was charged at his erotic behavior. He needs to resign & if he refuses, the senate needs to start his removal process immediately upon return from recess. Governor Murphy can appoint his wife or congressman Kim to serve the rest of the year.
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I feared he would be…..I hope this does not get dragged out in appeals the rest of the year and affect confirmations.
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Even if he does appeal, he’ll have to show up to work if he doesn’t resign or get expelled.
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So it’s looking like a Trump second term will be locking in a 6-3 Supreme Court for the next 30 years.
I wonder if they’ll expel him in the senate and replace him this month so they can start confirming judges asap.
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I would be surprised if Republicans help Democrats expel Menendez. Hard to say though.
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Could help them with tough on corporate crime optics.
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As far as Vance, Trump made it with the assumption that he’ll win regardless. It doesn’t help him at all in the campaign. In a way it’s also what Hillary did in 2016 with the pick of Kaine, which was a governing one, not a campaign one.
If Harry S. Biden comes back from the dead and wins this at the end, this will have been a huge mistake.
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It does seem odd in hindsight that Hillary didn’t pick someone from Wisconsin, Michigan, or PA that could’ve helped her in one of those states.
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Hillary Clinton couldn’t find those states on the map the last 3 months of the campaign, let alone pick somebody from there for VP. I just don’t think she felt she could lose in 2016. I hope Trump falls into the same category this year.
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Hillary did take PA seriously, she just lost it. It wasn’t due to a lack of effort. Michigan and Wisconsin, she didn’t show up until the very end.
Trump is talking about expanding the map like Hillary did, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Virginia, etc.
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She thought she had those states in the bag, and TBH a VP from the Midwest itself wouldn’t have moved the needle much (just like Vance won’t either).
The bigger mistake is that she didn’t address her potential weaknesses, such as working class voters, black turnout, or Bernie voters. One big purpose of the VP is to “balance the ticket” to reassure or excite with voters that she needs to improve with. Kaine added little to nothing for that, and neither does Vance. Biden did that for Obama, and Pence did that for Trump in 2016.
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For kicks, this was Clinton’s shortlist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_Party_vice_presidential_candidate_selection
Becerra, Castro, Perez- may have helped among Hispanics and boosted her in the Orlando area.
Brown, Ryan- could have helped among blue collar voters.
Booker- Black turnout
Warren, Perez- could have helped among progressives and Bernie voters
Garcetti- not really sure why he was considered
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I thought for sure it was going to be Castro. Hispanic, future of the party, and they (Bill and Hillary) had talked him into taking HUD to raise his profile in Obama’s 2nd term.
No shade on Kaine, but even by my abysmal VP prediction record, I was pretty sure about this one.
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True but Hillary had very slim pickings from those swing states. 2010 and 2014 had wiped out democratic leadership in every swing state until 2018s blue wave.
And that’s what makes Bidens decision to stepaside so so frustrating. Harris could have picked Shapiro to lock in PA or Newsom could have picked Whitmer to lock in Michigan.
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A) Do you think Menendez will resign before the Senate returns? Will have to be threatened with expuslon?
B) Will Gov. Murphy appoint a caretaker or Rep. Kim? If the former, will he appoint his wife so she’s a senator for a few months and NJ gets its first female senator? He could also achieve that, obviously, by appointing a female caretaker who is not his wife.
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Better late than never. It looks like bad poll numbers is bringing the best out of Biden.
(https://archive.is/7UdiD)
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Disagree here.
Going after the SC now makes him look desperate. The only people who will pay attention to this are hyper engaged Dems that will vote blue no matter what and hyper engaged moderates who will think Biden is caving to the left which will turn them off.
He keeps doing this and it makes him look so bad. He did the same thing with Israel when he doubted civilian gaza deaths that enraged pro-Palestine folks and then paused weapons shipments that pissing off pro-Israel folks.
4 months to the election, he needs to pick some lanes and stick to them.
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Just posted about this below and only realized it had been discussed already. Agree with you Mike that this reeks of desperation at a point when Biden is effectively a lame duck president, and nothing here will actually come to pass.
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IMO I’m done with the RNC dog and pony show with Trump family nepotism…..Biden and his Scotus plans are good but no time this presidential cycle.. Therefore Democrats coalesce around one candidate and the senate get the business of Judicial nominations confirmed Done and any immediate already started legislation done,,,,,
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Presiding Officer: The Senator is recognized.
(Republican Senator): Madam President, I rise to announce my intention to block any and all judicial nominations sent to us by this president in the waning months of his failed presidency. This hold is in response to his dangerous pandering to the hard left with their desire to destroy the SCOTUS by adding more seats to that court.
Make no mistake, Madam President, the president’s latest statement on expanding SCOTUS is not just some foolish election ploy destined to fail. It shows that Joe Biden is no longer in charge at the White House. Who is pulling the strings? Which far-left group is putting these words in the senile’s president’s mouth? We know who the puppet is, but the American people deserve to know who the puppet master is.
Madam President, a president playing election games with our cherish federal judiciary should not be allowed to further undermine that same institution with more far left unqualified judges.
No more. I will make sure that not a single Biden judge is confirmed for the remainder of this Congress.
To my fellow Republicans, please join me in this principled stand and together we will be successful in blocking Joe Biden’s radical judicial nominees, just like we have been all the other times we’ve placed holds on them.
I thank you Madam President, and suggest the absence of a quorum.
…
Sen. Schumer: Madam President.
Presiding Officer: The Majority Leader is recognized.
Sen. Schumer: Madam President, I sent a cloture motion to the desk.
Presiding Officer: The Clerk will read the motion
Clerk: We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of Executive Calendar No. XXX, Adeel Mangi, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit…
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@Gavi
Haaaaaa… From your fingers to God’s ears. Just make sure Mr. Vance is on the campaign trail that day.
By the way, how is senator Blackburn’s blockade of New York judicial nominees going? So sad none of them can get confirmed until she agrees… Lol
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Who am I kidding? Only the Schumer part of that is complete fabrication…
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I corrected it for you…
Sen. Schumer: Madam President.
Presiding Officer: The Majority Leader is recognized.
Sen. Schumer: Madam President, I sent a cloture motion to the desk.
Presiding Officer: The Clerk will read the motion
Clerk: We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of Executive Calendar No. XXX, Bozo the Clown, of California, to be Executive Director of Clowns for a 90 day term…
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I can fill in the blanks on that Senate skit lol. The calendar number is 462 for Mangi (I know Mangi’s Kasubhai at 464, I think Russell is 466, I know Ali is 539, Sooknanan 601, and Ritz 649). Schumer would also need to kill the quorum call first, and if in executive session already, would need to move to legislative session and then back to executive session to file cloture on Mangi (if already in legislative session, then he can move to executive session to send the cloture motion).
Also, as far as the Republican Convention is concerned, I’m not sure what I’m dreading more, the unhinged speeches or the subterranean bar the media will set for these guys. All Trump has to do is not say the 14 words or recite the George Wallace segregation forever speech and the media will tell us how presidential and sharp he was, and that it’s a new Trump on a new (probably 23rd at this point) tone.
If Bob Menendez appeals and isn’t expelled, would he need to be at the appeal hearings? I mean, if you’re not going to quit, at least go cast some deciding Senate votes lol.
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@TSB Yeah I definitely don’t know the calendar numbers, but trust me, I am familiar with the sequence of the motions, just thought I’d give an abbreviated version. I know you’ve been doing it more recently, but for years before, I’ve been posting Senate rules, precedents, and their reasons and history. For example, if you go back a few years, you’ll find my explanation as to why the Senate goes in and out of Executive sessions to consider each judicial nomination at a time.
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Biden proposing new reforms to SCOTUS. Glad to see a proposed code of ethics, don’t care for the rest of the items here however. Whatever though, it’s not like any of this will actually happen.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/16/politics/supreme-court-reform-joe-biden-ethics-immunity-term-limits
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Fox News poll suggests SCOTUS approval is anemic at 38%, and at 26% among independents. Biden’s proposals may not help him, but it sure can’t hurt.
https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-supreme-court-approval-rating-drops-record-low
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I know someone had asked about this, but the Senate Homeland Security posted up a business meeting for next Wednesday to vote out the remaining local DC court judges. Still awaiting a hearing date for the two DC Appeals Court nominees.
Nothing new on the Finance Committee side, where hearings have been held on the second batch of Tax Court nominees and are now awaiting a committee vote.
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Menendez is planning on resigning: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democratic-sen-bob-menendez-tells-allies-will-resign-bribery-convictio-rcna116970
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OMG finally some good news. After seeing Biden has Covid again, I was beginning to think the day was completely shot. Getting rid of the worst Democrat senator at least puts a smile on my face.
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Finally, this really should have happened 6 years ago. One of the AUSAs in this case might make a good replacement for Netburn.
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Not that any of the nominations set to be confirmed next week will need 51 Democratic Senators to confirm, but it’d be nice to have the successor appointed and sworn in the Tuesday they get back. May even open the door for Ritz or Kidd to have cloture filed on for a Thursday afternoon vote on that Tuesday?
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Apologies if this posts more than once. I’m having WordPress issues.
Alaskalandmine.com published some more info about Kindred and the Alaska courts (this is the publication that originally broke the resignation news). WP seems to freak out when I try to include the link so you’ll have to look up the article yourself.
The gist of it is that there seems to be quite a few AUSAs and lawyers who were all having affairs with each other and with Kindred.
Two of the the ones who were sleeping with Kindred applied for the open district court seat.
“Multiple sources confirm that Kindred supported Nesbett for the vacant federal judgeship. He went as far as to set up meetings with, and introduce her to, senior officials in both Murkowski and Sullivan’s offices.”
Nesbett is Michelle Nesbett who is the wife of Anchorage Superior Court Judge and is one of several defense attorneys who are approved to work as defense counsel on cases that the Federal Public Defender Office is conflicted out of. Based on donations, she’s also probably a Dem.
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Keep your hands and genitals to yourself at work. Why is this so difficult to understand?
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https://alaskalandmine.com/landmines/local-attorney-who-sent-sexually-suggestive-text-messages-to-judge-kindred-is-wife-of-anchorage-superior-court-judge/
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So is Menendez going to resign, I had a feeling this wasn’t going to go smoothly
https://politicalwire.com/2024/07/17/menendez-denies-hes-resigning/
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If not, the senate better move to expel this piece of crap the first week back in session. I actually think it would be better if they did expel him. Put any Republicans on record for voting to keep him in the senate.
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With Biden now getting Covid, reports of Schumer, Jeffries & Pelosi expressing to him in private he should consider stepping down& reports he is more receptive to stepping aside in private than in public, today is the first time I feel there is more than a 50% chance Biden might not be the nominee this November. This article makes a great point about who Harris should pick as VP if she becomes the nominee. Despite me not wanting to lose another Democrat from the senate floor for votes between now & November, I have to admit senator Kelley would be a great choice.
(https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrats-hero-actually-already-one-213148251.html)
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If Harris were taking my advice, I’d recommend one of the blue wall governors: Shapiro, Evers, or Whitmer. Roy Cooper from NC would be good too
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One issue with picking Shapiro is that if he wins, his Lt Governor becomes governor and then the President Pro Tempore of the State Senate (who is a right winger) becomes Lt gov/head of the Senate.
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Hm. Harris & Whitmer. 2 women.
That’s a bold step, and I’m sure more than a touch of misogyny will ensue. But that may well be a winning game changer! I like it!
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That’s a legitimate concern, but I think the potential boost in PA would be too good to pass up. I don’t know the specifics of PA, but Lt Governors are generally pretty powerless.
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Hearing scheduled for the two Court of Appeals nominees of the District of Columbia next Thursday.
Nominations – Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs (senate.gov)
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Overdue but I’ll take it. They take too long to schedule but at least they are working on a week the senate is in recess so I won’t complain too much.
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There’s a mistake on the HSGAC agenda. The business meeting on the 24th lists the 2 nominees for the appellate court being voted on for the Superior Court, and the nominations meeting the next day lists them as being considered for the Appeals court.
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Don’t agree with the National Review very often but this is a great rebuttal to Biden’s proposed judicial reforms: https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/07/bidens-assault-on-the-legal-system/
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If true, I want to thank President Biden for his service to our country & a good term. I certainly want to thank him for being the best president when it comes to judges.
(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-world-braces-possibility-president-steps-rcna162494)
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I’ll say something very clear if Biden steps down. If the Dems don’t have a ticket ready at the time that Biden drops, there is very little chance that the GOP doesn’t wins in November. Any sort of “open process” is an absolute disaster. The real reason why Biden ran again was to prevent a really messy primary.
Biden has some chance to win even now, and it’s debatable how low it is. But having a messy debate on who is to replace him *now* gives you the absolute worst chance.
If Biden is out, the Dems need to announce the ticket basically immediately after he drops.
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@Jamie
Big donor money dried up for Biden. He has no chance if they keep their purses shut thru election day…especially with Trump getting to sell Truth Social in September which allows him to also self fund.
I think they’re circling the wagons around Kamala now. Makes sense to the extent that she’s the only one who Biden can transfer his fundraising haul to. Also, if Biden doesn’t bless Kamala, there goes much of the Black female vote.
If I’m right and Kamala takes over, she should name her VP choice the day after Joe drops out of the race and NOT ONE DAY LATER!!!
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On the big money donors, if I were Biden and his team I’d call their bluff. They’d return the day after the convention was over. Or otherwise be permanently blamed for letting Trump win.
Now if there is other information that points to Biden having no chance or Biden’s condition truly is worse than we know, dropping out makes sense. If Biden is a lot worse than we know he shouldn’t be running the country either.
As to a replacement, it basically has to be Kamala and probably a moderate white male VP. Cooper, Shapiro, Mark Kelly, or Beshear all make sense. Harris has privately said that these are among her VP considerations, and they should be vetting them now. But again, the Dems absolutely cannot open up the nomination.
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As a disclaimer I’d vote blue no matter who and even if Biden is a shell of himself I’d still vote for him, but I have interacted with a fair amount of people who stutter and old people and his performance at the debate and even before/after that is outside of normal limits for just that.
While I do not believe most of the press is acting in good faith I also believe there are serious concerns.
I also believe Biden is not a good person and arrogant beyond belief which is partially why we are in this mess.
It’s so frustrating to see the mainstream press not go after Trump and his orbit to the degree they should and spend so much time on Bidens issues, but then to see lefty twitter and other spaces go on about how amazing Biden is as a person and that there’s nothing wrong and we’re all just being influenced. These questions do need to be asked and it’s not buying into the right’s agenda for the simpel fact of asking them.
I’m probably not making a lot of sense and am probably in the extreme minority and that’s fine. I don’t care who the dem nominee is as long as they aren’t an outright Republican I’d vote for them.
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“As a disclaimer I’d vote blue no matter who and even if Biden is a shell of himself I’d still vote for him”
And this is why Biden is reluctant to leave the race. Because he and his team know there is a decent chance that against Trump/Vance enough people will end up voting for him reluctantly, however much they don’t want to.
And same thing with the donors. The big donors want Biden out but if Biden is still there in September they’ll come back.
Political electability is an art, not a science. It’s difficult to say right now whether Harris has a better chance against Trump than Biden. Anybody who says they know the answer to that is lying.
If Biden is unable to do the job or if the debate is whom he is rather than just one bad night; he shouldn’t just drop out, he should resign.
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Lawrence VanDyke spilled some tea about the 9th circuit in his dissent from grant of en banc:
“In this circuit, you could say that
roughly two-fifths of our judges are interested in faithfully applying the totality of
the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment precedent when analyzing new issues that
have not yet been directly addressed by the Court. The other 17/29ths of our bench
is doing its best to avoid the Court’s guidance and subvert its approach to the Second
Amendment. That is patently obvious to anyone paying attention. To say it out loud
is shocking only because judges rarely say such things out loud. ”
I assume that 16/29 are the 16 Dem appointees but I wonder who the GOP appointee is. Possibly Milan Smith, the most moderate member of the 13 GOP appointees.
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Van Dyke was indeed referring to Milan Smith – Smith dissented from the original panel majority in this case (written by Van Dyke), and he ended his dissent by urging the court to take the case en banc and overrule the panel majority.
Van Dyke’s little rant is silly for many reasons, but especially because the issue in this case is whether it’s unconstitutional to ban felons from possessing firearms. In light of Rahimi, it’s highly unlikely that SCOTUS will actually make it unconstitutional for felons (even nonviolent felons) from owning guns. To hold otherwise would mean that convicted drug dealers or collectors of child pornography (just two examples) can freely own all kinds of weapons. The fact that none of the other conservatives (not even hard-right judges like Ryan Nelson or Ikuta) joined Van Dyke’s nonsense shows that Van Dyke isn’t someone to be taken seriously.
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Now this is interesting, Sarah Netburn is listed on the list next Thurs. I would assume this won’t be another 10-11 vote?. Unless she’s going to be held over?
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/07/25/2024/executive-business-meeting
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I wonder if they will keep listening her until she is officially withdrawn
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I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case, I remember Michael Delaney was constantly listed on the agenda until he withdrew, as the question was either whether there was enough support on the SJC to vote him out or if they’d have the votes once Feinstein got back, which became evident he didn’t have the votes when he wasn’t voted on when Feinstein did get back (Bjelkengren, Crews, and Gaston were all voted out at the first chance).
If Menendez is also going to fight against the calls to resign, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s back and voting on Tuesday. Was hoping we’d see some movement there.
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There’s only two weeks left before the Summer recess so they better make some moves. I’m actually hoping for another Ted Cruz 2014-eases repeat where maybe he or another MAGA Republican demands the senate stays in session until they get answers about the assignation attempt. Schumer should absolutely keep the senate in session another week or so if they demand answers. And of course tee up more confirmations during.
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This is gonna be an interesting group to watch.
Campbell will obviously be party line.
Lipez had a rough hearing but she also presumably has Collins’ blue slip. Will that get a Graham vote? Will that get a Tillis vote given his recent rants about how if only the WH had worked with him on a NC nominee, it would get Republican votes?
Henry and Lanthier are trickier bc they didn’t get much heat at their hearings bc the Senators were too spent from the earlier hearing. However, we’ve had situations where by candidates didn’t get any criticism and then were party line , e.g. Murphy, Vargas, Pennell.
Lanthier’s QFRS are all kind of generic. They only asked her the standard boiler plate questions and nothing really specific about her credentials so I think she’ll prob get some cross party votes.
Henry stumbled over one of Professor Kennedy’s hearing questions, so that could be an issue. In her QFRS, there were a few questions about her time with the Feminist Majority Foundation and Graham double clicked into a case she worked on involving child pornography. I could see that being party line.
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More of a musing question, do you all think Van Dyke is one of those judges that other judges just despise? Are there others that you think fit that mold?
Do you think that there are republican judges that are embarrassed by those types outlandish behavior?
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Daniel P. Collins is similar, though I have not seen as many controversial opinions from him recently.
However, this type of behavior among Republican judges has been normalized on courts like the 5th circuit. VanDyke stands out more because the majority of 9th circuit judges don’t think the same way as him.
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With everything going on in politics, I missed this 4 days ago. Looks like both blue slips have been turned in for Byron Conway.
(https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-baldwin-and-johnson-turn-in-blue-slips-for-eastern-district-of-wisconsin-court-judge-nominee)
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That should put Biden one seat away from doing something that hasn’t been done in 40 years: filling every Article III vacancy that preceded a presidential term. This is of course thanks largely to the elimination of home state senators’ veto power on circuit nominees and Trump’s efficacy at filling red state vacancies. Biden won’t fill the Brasher seat in Alabama, but that was always the least likely of the 46 existing vacancies for Biden to fill.
Here’s how presidents have performed:
Reagan 1: filled all 36
Reagan 2: filled all but 1 of 105
GHW Bush: filled all but 2 of 41
Clinton 1: filled all but 7 of 109
Clinton 2: filled all but 10 of 92
GW Bush 1: filled all but 12 of 84
GW Bush 2: filled all but 3 of 37
Obama 1: filled all but 5 of 54
Obama 2: filled all but 5 of 83
Trump: filled all but 10 of 108
Biden: filled all but 2 (hopefully 1) of 46
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Between the Biden campaign, Bob Menendez not being cooperative with his convictions, the media just becoming complete state run TV during this past week with the assassination attempt and the RNC (thinking Trump was going to do his next pivot), I guess this counts as good news we can take? As far as any other judiciary news, we’re still not expecting another batch of nominees until a little under four weeks at the latest. There will be some nominees voted out next week and I’m hoping we get cloture on Kidd or Ritz filed on Tuesday (I wouldn’t be surprised if Kidd jumps the line, since his confirmation hearing was far smoother despite the lack of blue slips and may be easier to confirm).
If we do get a resolution to expel Menendez, I hope to god it’s expedited to just an up or down vote and not have to go through at least four votes (cloture on MTP, MTP, cloture on resolution, and then the final vote) to get to it. As I’m typing this I realize someone like Menendez could simply object to any UC request on that and drag it out lol.
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Another thought I had on Conway is that I wonder how much Republican support he’ll get with Ron Johnson’s support. When you think of the craziest Senate Republicans, you think Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, etc, but Ron Johnson is an underrated pick here. He represents a state where seemingly every statewide election from President to gas station cashier (and Wisconsin is a state where the party of said gas station cashier has enormous impacts on the state) is decided by less than a point but he both talks and votes like he represents a congressional district where the entirety of his constituents are either QAnon or January 6 attackers. He’s also voted for very few of Biden’s nominees, it’s not like this is a pick with Susan Collins’ blue slip.
Since every incumbent Senate Democrat won re-election in what should have been a brutal midterm for them two years ago, I have very few knocks on their campaigns that year, the only criticism I really had was that I feel Democrats could have done more contesting Wisconsin, given how polarized both the state and Ron Johnson are, I feel they abandoned the state at the first site of adversity there. I understand them not contesting North Carolina or Ohio harder since those are redder states and far more difficult to win in a Democratic President’s midterm, but I feel like Barnes was more or less left to dry. Barnes winning would have given Democrats 52 seats, a bigger margin for confirming party-line nominees (giving you two defections before needing the VP and affording you up to 3 or 4 absences, depending on the availability of the VP and assuming full Republican attendance), and makes it harder for Republicans to win the Senate this year (Republicans would need to pick up two seats to get to 50 and three for 51, in a Biden re-election in this scenario they’d need to pick up all of WV/MT/OH instead of a combination of them).
If Allen on Utah (with Mike Lee’s blue slip) got 100 votes and Kazen/Gonzalez/Schydlower in Texas got around 80-90 votes each (with Cruz’s blue slip), you’d think Conway with Johnson’s support would get a similar number.
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There are a couple of reasons why I can see Conway getting less votes than Schydlower & the others despite Johnson’s blue slip. For one, some Republicans have gone on record since he was confirmed to say they will oppose all Biden judicial nominees for the rest of the year. Second, it’s much closer to the election. So some Republicans may want to signal opposition to filling any seats until after the election, albeit it is probably the same senators from my first point. It’s amazing how all of a something they want to invoke the Thurmond Rule… Lol
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Excellent news on Conway….glad to see it.
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So on Tues, wonder which scenario it will be – Sen Menendez shows up, Andy Kim (or other replacement) is the new senator, OR no one shows up Menendez doesn’t resign and doesn’t show up in the chamber either
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At this point it’s probably too late for the 2nd scenario (Menendez resigns and a new Senator is appointed), if Menendez doesn’t need to be in court for a while (when would his sentencing date be? Would he need to show up at the appeals?) I’m wagering on 1, 3, 2 in that order.
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Menendez sentencing date is Oct 29th
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If Menendez won’t resign I hope he at least shows up the next two weeks. Lol.
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What are you talking about ? lol
The man was just convicted of using his office to commit crimes.
There’s no way they are going to let him back into the capital building.
His career is over!
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I am not sure how they can stop Menendez from going to work without expelling him. He is a current member of the US senate until he is not. I don’t believe they can prevent him from doing his job without him not being a US senator.
There is a rule that even if the police pull him over for speeding or something to that effect, if he says he is going to vote, they have to let him go. I doubt they can prevent him from going to the senate floor absent his resignation or removal from office, the latter which they should do without question if he refuses to do the former.
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The senate has the right to restrict his access to the captal. What business does he have there anyway?
A simple instruction to bar Menendez can done easily given the crimes that he commited.
He is entitled to his salary and benefits but will not be allowed to return until a final decision can be made.
I wish him luck if he thinks he can go to court to obtain a different result. I don’t know if such decisions by the senate are reviewable. If so, it would be very limited and he would sentenced before the issued can be litigated.
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If he is allowed to travel pending sentencing then I don’t see how they can keep him out of the senate. He is the elected senator from NJ.
Personally I wish he’d resign but if he doesn’t then I’d rather have him show up to work than stay home.
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Menendez should do the right thing and resign, but until he does, keep him voting! We can’t afford to lose any votes here.
Good news on Byron Conway. Glad to see his nomination is moving forward.
Sarah Netburn’s nomination may not be dead yet… she was added to the Exec. Business Meeting mark-up. I saw something on Twitter that they may have worked out a deal with Ossoff to address his concerns. Even still, she will be a tough vote to get through
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That vote on Netburn should have never happened. Ossoff should have told Durbin that he had concerns, and if he did Durbin should have held off on the vote. That’s really bad on one of them.
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What a difference between the 2 parties. Donald Trump convicted of 34 felonies, and who led an insurrection against the country he was supposed to be leading is the almighty emperor within the Republican party who can do no wrong and his popularity is sky high amongst GOP voters. And the only reason he is not on trial in GA, FL, and DC is that he had super friendly judges running interference for him and those cases will be buried if he wins in Nov.
Meanwhile, Sen Menendez can’t exit the Democratic party fast enough. Yes, he should resign today, but he’d probably be a martyr if he was in the GOP
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This claim somehow that the Senate can prevent Menendez into the building is inaccurate. As an elected senator, he’s entitled to vote on matters until he is no longer a member of the body. The Senate can vote to remove him from all committees, but they can’t prevent him from voting on bills.
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Sure they can.. At this point it doesn’t look like they will do that. When Cory Booker was on MSNBC a few days ago he said he was leading the effort to get Menendez out of the senate .
They could bar Menendez or place restrictions on his entry into the capital. Has anyone on here looked at the 16 counts he was convicted of.?
The court may allow to Menendez free to take care of his personal affairs before he is sentenced.
I don’t see a court forcing the senate to allow Menendez on the premises. Why would anyone in there right mind expect to return to work where they committed crimes. It’s insane!
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The court is unlikely to restrict his travel because he is not a flight risk and has no prior convictions. And he’s a high profile politician. They didn’t restrict Trumps travel either.
If he is allowed to leave the state, the Senate absolutely can’t bar him from entering and voting until he’s been expelled.
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The DOJ can’t keep Menendez out of the senate nor can the court. But, the senate makes it own rules so they are free to bar Menendez from returning until the matter is resolved.
My point is that that senate can make it’s own rules provided that they don’t violate the constitution.
They have the leeway to decide how to apply their rules.I realized that when the Supreme Court squashed recess appointments several years ago.
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@Shawnee68
I am not understanding. you keep saying they CAN bar Menendez from entering the Capitol. Besides what I personally think of him & him remaining a senator (I think I have been pretty clear on that), how exactly do you propose keeping a sitting U.S. senator from entering the capitol to do their job other than removing them from being a U.S. Senator?
Any other way besides removing them from being a senator sets a dangerous precedent. Are you suggesting they just lock the doors when he tries to enter? Or just pass around a Post It note to the guards to stop him from coming in? What would stop a future Republican majority from doing the same thing to a Democrat senator?
I am not as well verse as @Gavi in the exact wording of the senate rules, but I can confidently bet money you just can’t stop a senator from entering the building to do their job without some formal process. So if you are talking about removing him from office, we are on the same page. But if you are talking about just stopping him from entering the building without any formal process, I can’t see how that would be either constitutional or precedent setting.
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If all senators agree the question is who can stop them? The senate can make make it’s own rules for someone using the senate itself to commit crimes.
Have you been to the capital? They can easily bar him from coming into the senate. They have security.
They are not powerless.
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If it is not in the senate rules, then I am going to say they can’t. And I highly doubt there is something in writing that says the senate can block a senator from entering the building without a formally process or vote. I am almost sure of it I& I am currently in Miami, Florida, nowhere near the capital… Lol
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Yes but the way the senate makes its own rules is through votes or unanimous consent. So that’s my point. It would take some action such as a vote or procedural move to bar a senator from doing their job. I hope they do just that & remove him altogether since he doesn’t seem to have a shred of decency or integrity & just resign.
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Of course, they can bar him by unanimous consent….but if Menendez is there then he can object to any motion. And others likely would as well.
As much as you (and I) would like it, You can’t just expel him from the senate because you want to without going through the formal process.
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The Senate can simply vote to expel Menendez without any formal process if it chooses. If the Senate wanted to, their first vote when they return could be a cloture vote on expulsion of Menendez. The House tried to do that with George Santos even before the Ethics committee gave their report but the vote fell short.
But they have to go through the vote to expel him, and cannot just “shut the doors and not let him” in as long as he is still a member of the body.
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My understanding is there would be four votes, if Menendez really dug in his heels:
I am not sure on the rules for minimum hours of debate.
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So they could take 4 vote slots to expel him or they could confirm 2 judges.
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Depends. If Menendez shows up to confirm these judges, then you could either not expel him or force the GOP to demand he be expelled and hold the vote then.
If he doesn’t show up at all, then you’ll have to go through the expulsion procedure.
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Biden should make it clear to Menendez, if he is expelled, under no circumstances will he consider a pardon for him. At least if he resigns, Biden could tell him he would consider it after he has exhausted all of his appeals. He should set the deadline for Monday afternoon. After that, no consideration for a pardon. And Schumer should be letting him know they have the votes to expel him regardless.
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Do they have the votes to expel? It takes 2/3 of the Chamber and the Republicans have been kind of of cagey as to whether they’re inclined to help the Dems out.
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My guess is that the GOP will provide enough votes to expel him, but they’ll try to drag out the process and waste as much time as possible.
Voting against expelling a corrupt Democrat would really make them look bad. It could become an issue in a primary.
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if 17 Republicans can’t be found to expel him then at least put them on record as such.
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As far as the Senate schedule is concerned next week, there’s also the Netanyahu speech to Congress. It’s on Wednesday, the 23rd, which would be the only full day of the Senate next week, does anyone know what time it’s supposed to be held? Worst case is that it’s during the day and the Senate calls it quits early, and then all that’s voted on next week is the nominations that were teed up before the break, best case it that it’s after hours and maybe sometime can get teed up on Tuesday for a Thursday afternoon speech.
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I am hopeful for Ritz or Kidd getting a cloture vote Thursday. A lot of Republicans may leave town after Netanyahus speech. We will see.
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Thank you President Biden for your years of service. I wish you a happy & well deserved retirement.
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He did in a tweet throw his support behind the Vice President. As I was driving home I realized that this could affect her availability to break ties for judges if any of them come up for a vote lol, but I’m hoping the absence of Vance or someone alleviates that.
All we need for the president at this point is just two, maybe three more batches of nominees? Two for the September hearings and you could squeeze one for November.
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I don’t really think this will affect her tie breaking votes much. Schumer will just schedule the tough votes for when her schedule can have her in DC. And as you said, Vance will be out a lot too so that will help offset her & Manchin too.
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Correct, three more batches.
I would expect any truly contentious nominees being punted until after the election, but that’s only 5 weeks worth of senate action. And there are several less controversial nominees for the senate to work on.
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The biggest thing Biden did for me was get me far more tuned into the judiciary than I was pre-Biden. I actually became more interested during Obama’s second term, especially after the filibuster got nuked and Obama both A) got the DC Circuit filled to full strength, solidifying a Democratic majority on the court and B) the flood of judicial confirmations that came in through the remainder of the Congress.
During Trump’s presidency, outside of SCOTUS I didn’t follow the judiciary all that much, since it would’ve pained me to see Trump and Republicans filling seat after seat with far right Federalist Society hacks. Towards the end of Trump’s term was when I finally looked at the appeals courts on Wikipedia and got a sense of the vacancies and balances on each court. During Biden’s first two years I followed the Senate twitter feed accounts to get a handle on the day-to-day things they were doing (again, I paid far more attention to Congress than I did in 2009/2010 when Obama had large Democratic majorities, only time I really paid vigorous attention to Congress during the Trump presidency was during the six months or so they spent trying to repeal Obamacare), and it wasn’t until this Congress that I started watching the Senate floor live.
There was actually a recent Jeopardy category called Senate history, and the answer for one of the clues (that no one guessed correctly) was cloture, how during Wilson’s presidency it was the first time the Senate had to invoke it (one person guessed a filibuster but I knew they were wrong lol).
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For me, I got into the SCOTUS and circuit courts during Trump’s term but didn’t start tracking new district court nominations until Biden took office.
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There we have it. For all the folks who convinced themselves that Biden will win this November. You can’t win a race you or no longer in. Let’s see how fast and tight you’ll hold on to the next wishful thinking about the elections.
Joe Biden’s judicial appointment stats end this year. So he better make the most of it now and add to it as much as he can.
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Oh really? Are you convinced that Kamala Harris will win. He’s out now but I don’t see people excited about Kamala Harris.
You’re not gonna see Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom or any other democrats attempt to knock off a black woman for the ticket.
The presidency is far more important than the judiciary. It looks like team Trump just issued a statement saying Biden would have been tougher to beat than Harris.
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As someone who was skeptical of pushing Biden out, I do believe Harris can win if the party unites around her NOW. Not in a month, but NOW. And since Biden chose to drop out, he should resign as well and give Harris incumbency. Agreed that beating Trump is more important than a few judges.
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Wait, what? I am shocked by your statement that people aren’t excited. I’m in awe by the level of enthusiasm I’ve seen for Harris over the past couple weeks and how quickly it’s grown.
Go on Twitter, cuz there’s a giant coconut tree digital army dedicated to Kamala and they’ve joined forces with the Bernie bros and they are going head to head with the MAGA trolls. They’ve been making and pumping out tons of pro-Kamala memes and content. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen multiple bars creating coconut themed Kamala drinks. I’ve been looking at the fundraising tickers all day and they’ve been working overtime since the announcement was made.
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Twitter isn’t real life.
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Who were you replying to here? Or just the NYT/mainstream media again? I don’t think this news matters that much honestly, either in the context of the race or the judiciary. Neither of Biden/Harris is seen in a positive light, no matter the records of each or how you personally may like or dislike them, it doesn’t matter since you aren’t in a swing state. After the debate Biden effectively became a lame duck president and this announcement just makes official what would’ve happened in November otherwise. A note though to people on the left who are saying the presidency is more important than the judiciary, that is just proof that Democrats simply don’t care about the judiciary the same the Republicans do. I can’t possibly see if the roles were reversed the Republicans willingly vacating the vice presidency with months remaining in the term and no feasible way to replace them due to not having the house. In any event, I don’t see that happening but I’m sure there will be pressure on both sides for Biden to resign in the coming days.
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It’s not very often I say this but I 100% completely agree with @Frank here. Mitch McConnell would personally wheel a Republican president on a gurney to the Resolute Desk for the rest of his term if it meant giving up a tie breaking VP vote on judges for five months. I don’t even think you could finish the sentence to suggest it before he laughed you out of the room. It would be a complete non starter of an idea for Republicans.
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I live in California and know for fact that Harris is unpopular here. However, there’s no other option because there may be legal issues surrounding ballot access.
I’m gonna say that 85% of the public can’t be bothered to follow politics.
If Trump is elected he gets to replace Alito and Thomas.That’s why I say presidency is more important , it’s a firewall for a potentially corrupt judiciary.
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“A note though to people on the left who are saying the presidency is more important than the judiciary, that is just proof that Democrats simply don’t care about the judiciary the same the Republicans do.”
No it isn’t “proof”. Donald Trump is potentially an existential threat to this country and the world. Given those stakes, a few lower court judges is considerably less important than beating Trump. That doesn’t mean that Democrats don’t care about the judiciary.
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President Biden is truly a selfless, leader. One of the best presidencies in my lifetime. It doesn’t change much for Kamala Harris’ presence in the Senate, she would’ve been out regardless campaigning whether as VP or now presidential nominee.
Hopefully this puts renewed focus on the White House Counsel to continue pushing the Senate to confirm Biden’s judicial nominees as those are truly his legacy
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I’ll say this again. If the party doesn’t unite around Harris in the next few days, or if there is any kind of “open process”, the Dems will have less of a chance than with the debate version of Biden. Any sort of “mini-primary”, open convention or any other division at this time is political disaster. This is exactly why I was skeptical of pushing Biden aside without first having an immediate plan to replace him.
Furthermore, I really do think that Biden should resign as well, maybe in 30 days to transition. President Harris will have considerably more strength than candidate Harris. Beating Trump is more important than a few judges, and Harris as an incumbent would be a stronger candidate.
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No, it’s more complicated than that. How can you expect Harris to be president and run a campaign at the same time in a period of 3 months? She has no experience doing either.
Harris is NOT an incumbent even if Joe Biden resigned. People are going question what she will do not what Biden has done.
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Biden resigning before the election would be a horrible idea, & not just because of losing VP Harris tie breaking either. If something goes wrong, let’s say in Gaza for instance, at least Harris can distance herself from it as Biden is the ultimate decision maker now. If she were to become president, she would assume anything bad that happens as well. Mine as well let Biden take all the hits between now & November on his way out the door.
But yes judges are enough for me to say it’s a bad idea regardless… Lol
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That’s the wrong way to look at it. If something bad happens in the next few months, she’ll get the blame too as the VP and heir to Biden. If something good happens, she won’t get all the credit.
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Republicans will blame Harris (Or if Biden was still the nominee than Biden) for acid rain on Venus. We already know they will blame the nominee for anything. But some voters that are not on this blog & don’t follow politics as close as we do will directly blame the President for bad things. Every time Israel bombs civilians in Gaza, ,they will blame Biden. If Harris becomes President THEY will blame Harris directly. We want young people to get out & vote again. Therefore, it’s better to not have Harris directly attached to any decision making such as missiles being shipped to Tel Aviv. We all know that she is a part of the decision making but some of the voters who were going to sit out soley blame Biden. Let’s keep it that way until November.
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I’m going to stick with President Obama and Nancy Pelosi on their endorsement of an open Demcrat primary process at the convention….
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There’s no greater gift to Trump than an open convention. This is the exact reason why I was skeptical of moving on from Biden.
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DNC holds a virtual meeting after Bidens announcement…. The link is on Forbes. I just can’t pull it up…
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