Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), as the likely incoming ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, could attempt to sabotage President-elect Donald Trump’s America First agenda by trying to torpedo his nominees.
Durbin has a track record of fierce opposition to Trump, and he has suggested that he may use every tool at his disposal to thwart Trump’s agenda, especially regarding key cabinet positions and judicial nominees.
The Illinois Democrat currently serves as the number two position in Senate Democrat leadership, as the Majority Whip, and as the likely ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, will have significant influence on how to create trouble for Trump’s nominees.
Although the Senate no longer has the 60-vote threshold to overcome the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, Democrats, including Durbin, can still stall the nomination process significantly.
This includes blocking unanimous consent requests, challenging quorums, and prolonging Senate floor debates, which all can force Senate Republicans to expend time and political capital to get nominees through Congress’s upper chamber.
After the Supreme Court ruled that the sitting president has criminal immunity for official acts, thus blocking Democrat prosecutors from going after Trump in the courts, Durbin said that Congress will have the onus of keeping Trump accountable.
“The Supreme Court has made it nearly impossible for the courts to hold a runaway president accountable. It will be left to the American people and Congress to try to hold the line because, as Justice Sotomayor noted in her dissent, ‘the President is now a king above the law,’” Durbin said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September. Ironically, Durbin’s comments come on the heels of President Biden granting his son, Hunter, an unprecedented pardon covering 11 years.
The Illinois Democrat wrote in mid-November, “During his first administration, Donald Trump assaulted the Constitution, undermined the rule of law, and tried to use the Department of Justice to overturn the results of the 2020 election”:
Other Senate Democrats said that Durbin is the right man to stymy Trump’s nominees.
“There’s nobody better than Chair Durbin to lead the charge against Donald Trump,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), a Senate Judiciary Committee member, said in November.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said the Illinois Democrat “did a remarkable job opposing Trump’s judicial nominees during his first administration and I know Dick can do it again.”
Americans will soon find out if Durbin lives up to his name.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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