06-10-2016, 01:27 AM
Sen. Elizabeth Warren escalated her attacks on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, and tied Mr. Trump’s inflammatory comments about a federal judge to what she calls the Republican Party’s obstructionism on judicial appointments. In a speech she plans to deliver Thursday night, the Massachusetts Democrat and potential vice presidential pick sharply chastises Mr. Trump for questioning the capabilities of Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing lawsuits against Trump University, because of his Mexican heritage. More In Elizabeth Warren“Judge Curiel is one of countless American patriots who has spent decades quietly serving his country,” Ms. Warren will say, according to excerpts released ahead of the speech at the American Constitution Society. “Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and serves nobody but himself.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump in a statement this week said his remarks had been “misconstrued,” but did not apologize for them. Thursday afternoon, MSNBC reported that Ms. Warren would endorse presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on its Rachel Maddow Show in the evening. In her speech, Ms. Warren also sought to undermine top congressional Republicans’ efforts to distance themselves from Mr. Trump’s comments on the judge without retracting their endorsement of Mr. Trump as the party’s standard-bearer. Both House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky. ) have continued to support Mr. Trump, though Mr. Ryan called the judge comments “racist” this week and Mr. McConnell said he doesn’t agree with them.
In the speech, Ms. Warren says Mr. Trump’s criticism of the judge was in line with how Republicans have approached the judicial branch under President Barack Obama. Democrats have criticized Republicans for slow-walking the confirmation of judicial nominees since the GOP gained control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections.
“Trump isn’t a different kind of candidate. He’s a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate,” Ms. Warren said in her remarks. “Exactly the kind of candidate you’d expect from a Republican Party whose ‘script’ for years has been to execute a full-scale assault on the integrity of our courts.”
Senate Republicans said they have been steadily approving judicial nominees.
Republicans said they have been steadily approving nominees and Mr. McConnell noted that he has brought judicial nominees to the Senate floor opposed by many Republicans.
“We’ve continued to process judicial nominees and we’ve done so even when a majority of the Republican conference did not support the nominee,” Mr. McConnell said in an exchange with Ms. Warren on the Senate floor this week, noting that Democrats do not get to set the chamber’s schedule. “The minority is not going to dictate to the majority when and how we do so,” he said.
Both sides wield statistics in the fight over judicial nominees. Republicans note American Constitution Society 2016 Convention Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s 2016 convention.
In the speech, Ms. Warren says Mr. Trump’s criticism of the judge was in line with how Republicans have approached the judicial branch under President Barack Obama. Democrats have criticized Republicans for slow-walking the confirmation of judicial nominees since the GOP gained control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections.
“Trump isn’t a different kind of candidate. He’s a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate,” Ms. Warren said in her remarks. “Exactly the kind of candidate you’d expect from a Republican Party whose ‘script’ for years has been to execute a full-scale assault on the integrity of our courts.”
Senate Republicans said they have been steadily approving judicial nominees.
Republicans said they have been steadily approving nominees and Mr. McConnell noted that he has brought judicial nominees to the Senate floor opposed by many Republicans.
“We’ve continued to process judicial nominees and we’ve done so even when a majority of the Republican conference did not support the nominee,” Mr. McConnell said in an exchange with Ms. Warren on the Senate floor this week, noting that Democrats do not get to set the chamber’s schedule. “The minority is not going to dictate to the majority when and how we do so,” he said.
Both sides wield statistics in the fight over judicial nominees. Republicans note American Constitution Society 2016 Convention Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s 2016 convention.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.