News of the possible deal has many Democrats apoplectic:
News of the arrangement broke after the White House told the Democrats, Gov. Andy Beshear and Rep. John Yarmuth, that they intended to nominate Chad Meredith to a judgeship in the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Both men went public with the news, talking to the Louisville Courier-Journal on the record. The newspaper first reported the potential nomination deal Wednesday. Yarmuth told the paper “it’s clear” the arrangement was part of a deal with McConnell.
Biden’s press office didn’t return TPM’s request for comment about the potential nomination, and the Courier-Journal reported Friday that the White House has repeatedly declined questions about the story – saying only, “we do not comment on vacancies.”
Democrats are stumped, even outraged, by the news, which came less than a week after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which McConnell helped engineer, overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped away the constitutional right to an abortion.
“This is some bullshit,” Senate candidate Charles Booker tweeted. “Why you would pick him to fill a federal vacancy when you’re a Democratic president is beyond me,” Yarmuth said.
…
The exact nature of the potential deal Biden has apparently struck with McConnell is unknown. The Courier-Journal reported Thursday, citing Yarmuth, that “the presumption is that with Meredith’s nomination, McConnell would agree not to hold up future federal nominations from the Biden White House.”
Could be true. Could be not true.
But I cannot imagine that any deal with McConnell, who stole a Supreme Court appointment from President Obama, can be morally or politically justified. But this would not be the first time that McConnell has played the Democrats for his own ends.
You can read more here.
