Trump judicial nominee attracts scorn after flopping
Bright spot for president dulled
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to fill scores of federal court vacancies with conservative judges hit severe turbulence this week, as he was forced to withdraw two nominees and an embarrassing video went viral showing a third struggling to answer rudimentary questions about the law.
The White House said Friday that it is standing by the nomination of Matthew Petersen, a nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, despite a clip from his confirmation hearing posted on Twitter in which Mr. Petersen was unable to answer questions about legal and courtroom terms posed by a Republican senator.
The episode offered more ammunition to Democrats, who have accused Mr. Trump of tapping inexperienced nominees in a rush to reshape the federal judiciary. Even some Republicans have suggested they’ve felt pressured by the White House to move forward with his picks.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley defended the qualifications of Mr. Petersen, a member of the Federal Election Commission since 2008 with no trial experience, saying the regulatory panel handles “the very kinds of issues” the court decides.
“It is no surprise the president’s opponents keep trying to distract from the recordsetting success the president has had on judicial nominations, which includes a Supreme Court justice and 12 outstanding circuit judges in his first year,” Mr. Gidley said in a statement.
Until this week, Mr. Trump’s record of getting judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate stood out as a bright spot for a president who has struggled for big wins on Capitol Hill. In addition to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Senate has confirmed 12 circuit court judges and six district court judges.
Ina news release this week, Senate Republicans touted theirwork with Mr. Trump as “the sleeper story of the year.” But that release came just one day after the nominations of two district court judges began to run aground, as Republicans on the Judiciary Committee registered strong objections to their credentials and character.
This year is the first since 2006 in which the GOP has controlled both the presidency and Senate, presenting a prime window of opportunity to fill lifetime appointments to what are currently 143 vacancies on the federal bench.
Only one GOP senator — John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana — has voted against a Trump judicial nominee. But this week demonstrated a new willingness by Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and others to derail Mr. Trump’s picks.
Mr. Grassley on Tuesday told the White House to “reconsider” the nominations of Jeff Mateer and Brett Talley, both of whom were reported to have endorsed positions or groups that embrace discrimination.
A day later, both nominations were pulled.
Mr. Talley, Mr. Trump’s nominee for a U.S. district court seat in Alabama, originally had received the endorsement of the Judiciary Committee, despite the fact that he had never litigated a case and was one of two Trump picks whom the American Bar Association had found “not qualified” for the federal bench.
Mr. Mateer was nominated to serve on the bench in the Eastern District of Texas, but the committee never received his paperwork.
Mr. Mateer, according to reports, had said in 2015 that transgender children are part of “Satan’s plan,” while Mr. Talley was reported to have posted a defense of “the first KKK” in an online comment in 2011.
Neither disclosed those comments during the vetting process. Mr. Talley also did not tell the committee that he is married to the chief of staff for White House counsel Don McGahn.