Republican senators are working to block President Trump's judicial nominees in the final weeks of their Senate majority, proving the swamp doesn't need Democrats to stall the agenda Americans voted for.
The fight is over lifetime federal judgeships — the kind of appointments that outlast any presidency — and two Republicans are leading the charge against their own White House. Outgoing Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both Judiciary Committee members, are using their leverage to effectively freeze nominations on behalf of Republicans who aren't even on the panel.
Tillis didn't hide it. "Don't treat us like a manufacturing facility. Treat us like the U.S. Senate," he told the Associated Press. "I'm not making a judgment about the merit of the nominee. I'm calling a foul on a process." His warning to the White House: fall in line, or else. "If they don't, they do so at their own peril."
Cornyn is blocking at least one Texas nominee outright. Elliot Gaiser, who leads the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, was contacted by Ted Cruz's staff about a Dallas federal judgeship the day after the midterm election. Cornyn's objection: Gaiser hadn't been vetted by Texas's traditional bipartisan judicial evaluation committee. Cornyn also flagged Gaiser's role advising Trump's 2020 reelection campaign on election challenges — work Cornyn apparently considers disqualifying. "Trying to air-drop somebody else in at the last minute for the Dallas vacancy that hasn't been through that process, I think, is a concern," Cornyn said.
Oklahoma nominee Zachary West, a former counsel to Cruz now in the Oklahoma attorney general's office, also faces opposition, though Arkansas Online reported it may be temporary.
The Republican obstruction comes with an expiration date. After the midterms, Democrats will control both chambers, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has already promised Democrats won't fill the bench with what he called "crappy nominees." Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has been racing to confirm judges before the clock runs out — but his own caucus is slowing him down.
Meanwhile, the White House is bracing for the incoming Democratic majority with a combative posture. White House counsel Will Scharf sent a letter to incoming House Oversight chair Robert Garcia warning that Democratic investigations could amount to "blatant criminality," according to Punchbowl News. Trump himself posted on Truth Social that Democratic threats against Attorney General Todd Blanche and others amounted to "extortion at the highest level."
Garcia isn't backing down. "The idea that the president, the attorney general, the White House legal team is trying to intimidate us, is not going to work," he told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. Garcia flagged potential investigations into Trump family business interests, citing "crypto schemes" and Pentagon contracts.
CNN's Collins noted the Scharf letter goes further than Trump's first-term strategy of simply ignoring subpoenas. "They're signaling this is going to be a very combative White House."
The through-line is clear: Republicans had a window to cement Trump's judicial legacy, and two of their own are blowing it. When the Democratic majority arrives in January, the White House will be fighting investigations on one front and wishing it had the judges it could have confirmed on the other. The people who voted for this agenda are left watching senators protect their own prerogatives instead.
