Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Trump writes foreword for McConnell
President lauds senator for help with high court
NEW YORK — The paperback edition of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s book “The Long Game” includes a foreword from a well-placed political ally: President Donald Trump.
In the foreword, shared Friday by the publisher Sentinel with The Associated Press, Trump praises the Kentucky Republican as an ideal partner in confirming conservative judges, notably Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
“The effort to transform the courts is one that will benefit the American people far into the future. It is a legacy of which I am immensely proud and one for which Mitch McConnell deserves great credit,” Trump writes.
The paperback comes out Dec. 3. McConnell is up for re-election next year.
“The Long Game” was first published in May 2016, soon after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell famously refused to let then-President Barack Obama fill the seat, now held by Gorsuch, whom Trump nominated in 2017. In an afterword for the paperback, McConnell describes close coordination between himself and Trump for the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh nominations.
Trump nominated Kavanaugh in the summer of 2018 and McConnell confirms reports from the time that he was concerned Kavanaugh’s many years in government, including more than a decade as a federal judge, would result in a “paper trail” that could extend the process past the midterm elections. He then recounts the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who had alleged that Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her while both were in high school.
“Immediately after Dr. Ford had completed her testimony that morning, the phone rang. It was a familiar voice: the president,” McConnell writes. “He and I both agreed that Dr. Ford had been a compelling witness. I expressed to the president that it was only ‘halftime,’ however, and that he should wait until completion of the second half before making any decisions.”