COUNT ON IT
Trump: I’ve narrowed Supreme choices to ‘4, 3 or 2’ people
President Trump has interviewed his top picks to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and narrowed the field of possible candidates down to three choices, according to reports Thursday.
The top trio on Trump’s short list are conservative federal appeals court judges Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge and Amy Coney Barrett.
A decision will likely come by the end of the week and Trump has already said he will reveal his choice on Monday.
“I think I have it down to four people and I think of the four people, I have it down to three or two,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One Thursday. “I think they’re all outstanding.”
He added that, “I’ll have a decision in mind by Sunday.”
Trump conducted interviews earlier this week and narrowed down his picks from the list of 25 judges he compiled while still a candidate in 2016.
Vice President Pence also met with some of the contenders for the sudden vacancy following Kennedy’s surprise retirement.
Both Kavanaugh, 53, and Kethledge clerked for Kennedy, as did Trump’s first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch.
Trump enjoyed his conversations with both men, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Kavanaugh is seen as the President’s favorite, according to a CNBC report.
Trump indicated to close advisers during a Fourth of July picnic at the White House that he had already made up his mind.
Kavanaugh currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and worked for George W. Bush’s administration in the White House.
The President felt he and the 51-year-old Kethledge, a judge on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “hit it off,” a person close to the White House told the Journal.
Barrett, 46, of Indiana, is a judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals. She clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and has worked as an academic at Notre Dame Law School.
Kennedy, 81, who announced his retirement last week, was long seen as a crucial swing vote on the highest court. He was the most centrist of the five conservatives currently on the court. Kennedy often joined liberal justices in major cases and delivered strong, conservative opinions in others.
While the President has focused his attention on Kavanaugh, Kethledge and Barrett, lawmakers and activists are still lobbying the commander-in-chief to keep an open mind.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) warned Trump in a Fox News Op-Ed that some of his top picks could be insufficiently conservative.
Cruz writes that “after countless mistakes by Republicans, we finally have a chance to get this right.”
He cited former justices William Brennan, John Paul Stevens and Harry Blackmun, who authored the Roe vs. Wade decision that established a woman's right to abortion. All three were nominated by Republicans.
Cruz has been campaigning for Trump to choose fellow Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) for the vacant spot, calling his pick a “sure thing.”
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reportedly petitioned the President earlier this week to pick federal judge Merrick Garland, whom former President Barack Obama nominated in 2016, according to The Washington Post.
Garland's confirmation was held up by Senate Republicans, who refused to vote on Obama's pick following Scalia's death in 2016.
Trump and Schumer spoke for less than five minutes, a source told the newspaper.