High-court vote on deportation could aid Trump
Deadlocked on prez’s plan
Donald Trump could get the most mileage out of the U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock on the president’s deferred-deportation plan, especially if he pushes the prospect of a liberal bench under a Hillary Clinton administration.
“It’s something that I think Trump could use to his advantage,” said Robert Oldendick, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina. “Immigration is obviously an important issue for him and … it would stress the need for more conservative justices (on the Supreme Court) … that ‘if we get a liberal judge in there, it could go in the other direction.’ ”
The court, currently split down the middle ideologically, voted 4-4 yesterday on President Obama’s call to shield millions of illegal immigrants from being deported. It follows nondecisions on Obamacare and religious liberty.
“Those are issues that not only play to his base but also to more mainstream Republicans,” Oldendick said of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Trump floated that strategy yesterday, saying in a statement: “The election, and the Supreme Court appointments that come with it will decide whether or not we have a border and, hence, a country.”
Clinton played more to voters’ sympathies.
“Today’s heartbreaking #SCOTUS immigration ruling could tear apart 5 million families facing deportation. We must do better,” Clinton tweeted.
But new polls yesterday presented dire warning signs for Trump in critical Republican states.
Trump and Clinton are tied at 43 percent in North Carolina, which has gone Republican in eight of the last nine presidential elections, although the last two cycles have been close, according to a Public Policy Polling survey.
Worse for Trump, he trails Clinton 47 to 42 percent in Arizona, according to a poll by Phoenix-based OH Predictive Insights released Wednesday. Since 1952, the Grand Canyon State has gone Republican in every presidential election except for Bill Clinton’s defeat of Bob Dole in 1996.
Meanwhile, ousted Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was hired as a salaried political commentator for CNN yesterday.
The move came just days after Lewandowski gave a lengthy in-studio sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash immediately after being let go.
In hiring the former Trump strategist, CNN appeared to overlook feuds with reporters, including a CNN embed.