Insiders give Trump big US court win
Unlike the chaotic rollouts of other Trump policy initiatives, the Gorsuch nomination went relatively smoothly
When Donald Trump started thinking during his campaign for the presidency last year about filling a Supreme Court vacancy, he turned to a group of Washington insiders at the controls of a well-oiled machine that puts conservative judges on the bench.
That disciplined network of operatives, shepherded by judicial activist Leonard Leo, on Friday delivered for Trump his first major accomplishment as US president: the confirmation of conservative Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court justice.
Unlike the chaotic roll-outs of other Trump policy initiatives, the Gorsuch nomination went relatively smoothly.
Democrats put up a fight in the Senate, but they lacked the votes to block the Republican majority and they lost.
Other key players included experienced Washington hands such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Senator Kelly Ayotte and White House Counsel Don McGahn.
“It worked because it was all planned out before the nomination. We know what works, what doesn’t work, what resources we need. We know the other side’s arguments and how to answer them. It’s like war,” Leo told Reuters on Friday.
The only surprise stumble in the effort came when Trump attacked judges who blocked his order banning US entry by people from certain Muslim-majority countries. Gorsuch distanced himself from the president’s Twitter messages.
Other than that, discipline was maintained from the first of five meetings that Leo, a veteran of Bush-era judicial confirmation battles, attended with Trump. The two met twice before the election. Leo helped compile a list of potential nominees for Trump.
That helped win over conservative activists unsure of Trump’s ideological compass at a time when he was still fighting for the Republican presidential nomination. A second, longer list came in September. It included Gorsuch, a federal judge.