President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neal Gorsuch has confirmed that he called Trump’s attack on the judiciary branch of the US government disheartening and demoralizing.
Judge Gorsuch’s spokesperson confirmed the nominee’s comments:
Gorsuch spox Ron Bonjean confirms SCOTUS nom called Trump’s “so-called judge” tweet “disheartening” & “demoralizing” in convo w/ Blumenthal
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) February 8, 2017
There are a few different ways to examine Gorsuch’s comments, and they all could be true. Judge Gorsuch could be angling for Democratic votes. This is likely, but also as a judge, Gorsuch could be legitimately troubled by the President’s comments. Donald Trump has gone out of his way to attack judges, and it is obvious that this behavior would serve to make him unpopular with that profession.
The reality is that saying a few things about Trump has opened the door for Democrats to grill Gorsuch his alignment with the views of the president. Democrats are going to filibuster Gorsuch no matter what, so the goal appears to be for the nominee to pick the nine Democratic votes that he will likely need to be confirmed.
If Gorsuch wants to pick up Democratic support, he is going to need to do a lot more than mouth some words about Trump’s comments being disheartening and demoralizing.
It speaks volumes about a Trump presidency that is sinking under the weight of its own self-inflicted wounds and failure that a Supreme Court nominee would be placed in a position where he had to say something negative about the man who nominated him.
For Democrats, actions speak louder than words. The actions of Judge Gorsuch from the bench are those of a man that no Democrat should be able to support.