President Trump highlighted his transformation of the federal judiciary during his initial address at the Republican National Convention (RNC). With help from the diligent work of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 200 judges have been confirmed to the federal bench as of June. This record-breaking confirmation pace exceeds that of any other president; Leader McConnell vowed to “leave no vacancy behind.”
President Trump also hinted that he will unveil a new list of potential nominees for Supreme Court vacancies, as he did in 2016, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. His campaign’s move to release the list of jurists was unprecedented, and rallied much of the Republican base with the prospect of a conservative justice being confirmed to the bench. President Trump pressed Biden to release his list of potential nominees for the high court.
Trump says his updated list of possible picks for US Supreme Court justices will be out in two weeks.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 24, 2020
"So you know exactly where we stand," he says at GOP convention in Charlotte.
He says he's "demanding" such a list of judges from Biden. pic.twitter.com/4t20rEwthb
Pres says he'll demand that @JoeBiden issue a list of judges he'll appoint to the Federal bench if elected. But says Biden can't do it because "the radical left will demand that he appoint super radical left, wild, crazy judges."
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 24, 2020
The newly-minted Democratic nominee has said little about the Supreme Court, but vowed to nominate a black woman to the highest court in the land. The promise of originalist judges on the bench of the federal judiciary and Supreme Court brought GOP voters to the polls in 2016, and with the possibility of a SCOTUS vacancy looming, the courts will undoubtedly be a center-stage issue in the general election.