JD Vance helps nominees navigate the Senate
Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram looks at the incoming vice president’s efforts to counter potential roadblocks in Congress for some of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration picks on ‘Special Report.’
Senate Republicans faced criticism over several vote absences this week that allowed Democrats to confirm judges or agree to end debate on nominees that otherwise could have been blocked if each of the missing GOP lawmakers were there.
One particularly crucial vote was on Monday for a lifetime appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court, a coveted appeals court slot to which Democrats did not have the votes to confirm President Biden’s nominee, since outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., voted against.
However, since Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., Steve Daines, R-Mont., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., did not vote, the nominee was confirmed by 49 votes to 45 votes.
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Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer scored judicial wins as a result of GOP Senate absences. (Reuters)
“This leftist judge would have been voted down and the seat on the important 11th circuit would have been filled by Donald Trump next year had Republicans showed up,” wrote Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., on X. “Now, the leftist judge will have a lifetime appointment and the people of FL, AL and GA will suffer the consequences.”
Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital, “A senator’s only job is to show up and vote.”
“President Biden is jamming through bottom-of-the-barrel radical left-wing judges for lifetime appointments to the federal bench after the American people voted for dramatic change. Senate Republicans must do everything they can to stop this lame-duck conveyor belt of radicals. But if these Senate Republicans cannot…
