Lee met with Trump about Supreme Court opening

The hill ^ | July 3, 2018

[SMGFan]

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) interviewed with President Trump about the looming Supreme Court vacancy, the senator’s communications director confirmed Tuesday.

Conn Carroll tweeted confirmation of a Deseret News story that said Lee met with Trump on Monday about the opening that will be created by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement at the end of the month.

Lee, who has expressed interest in the high court in the past, told the news outlet that he spoke with Trump about the position, but did not offer further details.

The senator indicated again last week he's open to being nominated as a Supreme Court justice. He is on the president's list of 25 potential candidates that Trump said he'd use to select Kennedy's replacement, and would seem to have the support of his Republican colleagues in the Senate.

Trump told reporters on Monday that he’d met with four potential nominees to replace Kennedy. The president praised them as “outstanding people," but did not provide their names. He said he plans to meet with two or three more candidates before making a final decision “over the next few days.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was equally tight-lipped about the identity of Trump's preferred candidates. She said Trump met with four candidates on Monday for 45 minutes, but declined to name names.

The Washington Post reported that federal appeals court judges Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were among the individuals who met with Trump. Both are considered frontrunners to be nominated as Kennedy's replacement.c

The president said on Friday he had narrowed his list of 25 possible nominees to five, including two women. He has said he plans to announce the pick on July 9.

[LongWayHome]

I saw that. Very troubling.

[Zhang Fei]

[Your comment was/is factually incorrect. Stop spewing Liberal talking points. More people voted against Clinton than for her.]

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And even more people voted against Trump than against Hillary. Numbers are stubborn things. I don’t really care that Trump lost the popular vote. The important thing is that the Democratic candidate lost. But it was a fluke driven by Trump’s Hail Mary play in the Rust Belt states, combined with Hillary’s combo of overconfidence and stupidity. We came really close to a Supreme Court with a reliable liberal majority, and that was why many of the Never Trumpers tried to get a replacement for Trump after his nomination - they were convinced he would lose.

Many of the Never Trumpers came around after he won. And others have come around after he proved to be, for the most part, a doctrinal conservative, except for trade and security issues. The only Never Trumpers remaining are the sanctimonious prigs who thinks he makes them look bad.

I think Trump’s a breath of fresh air. There have been plenty of GOP standard bearers, Boy Scouts in their personal lives, who have spent their political careers stabbing GOP voters in the back once they got elected (e.g. Nixon, Bush I and Bush II). Whereas Trump is no Boy Scout in his personal life, but he’s backed GOP voters on a lot of the things they care about, like immigration and trade.

[onyx]

USSC list?

Do you mean President Trump’s List of 25?

If so, both Lee’s are on it.

I’d hate to see Senator Lee selected because that would automatically make the horrid Romney the senior senator from Utah. (Provided he wins in November, that is).

[servantboy777]

>>Strike 1: Cruz is pushing him.<<

Ted Cruz is very popular in the MOST conservative state in the union...Texas.

Just an aside, Democrats born in Texas are typically more conservative than Republicans up in the Northeast.

Just sayin lol

[Zhang Fei]

[In the end, it’s not so much about Trump, but Lee’s maturity & stability.]

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Maturity and stability? I think Trump set a new standard for what’s acceptable in the midst of a political campaign by accusing Cruz’s father of having a hand in JFK’s assassination, and calling Cruz’s wife ugly. Heck, he set a new standard for what’s acceptable to GOP voters re First Ladies - she’s the only one I know of, that you can see in her birthday suit via any search engine.

[LongWayHome]

Trump was trolling the clueless Cruz who BTW was in the middle of an affair with the CNN nitwit Amanda Carpenter.

This was a ruckus election & Trump played to win....not a seat on SCOUTS which requires decorum & wisdom. Lee does not measure up.

[Zhang Fei]

[Trump was trolling the clueless Cruz who BTW was in the middle of an affair with the CNN nitwit Amanda Carpenter.

This was a ruckus election & Trump played to win....not a seat on SCOUTS which requires decorum & wisdom. Lee does not measure up.]

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I’d say the office of the Presidency, which incorporates the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and control of the nuclear football, requires more decorum and wisdom than the office of a single Supreme Court justice who is only 1 out of 9 individuals and doesn’t really control anything other than what bubbles up through the courts. But we nominated Trump anyway.

[Theodore R.]

What makes you think Senator Lee would be easy to confirm? Years earlier, Orrin Grant Hatch, Lee’s departing seat-mate, wanted a court appointment.

[LongWayHome]

If we did not nominate Trump Hillary would be in office. Cruz would have lost 40 states & I see nothing about Trump’s behavior in office that looks dangerous, do you?

Big difference between a campaign behavior & reality.

[Theodore R.]

Democrats born in Texas are typically more conservative than Republicans up in the Northeast.

I wouldn't think so. TX Democrats are on the far left for the most part. Look at the Valdez-O'Rourke ticket for proof.

[Az Joe]

Your original comment is still factually incorrect. Hillary never won the popular vote. You are a liar unless you retract it. Apologize and smarten up. Stop spewing Leftist propaganda.

[faucetman]

Kabuki theatre (don’t make the Senate mad)

Thomas Hardiman

[Bubba_Leroy]

There is zero chance that Lee’s replacement in the Senate would be a Democrat.

That is what most people said about Session's replacement in the Senate. Trump carried Alabama with 62% of the vote.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Back in the 1970s, Texas was a two party state. You had the Conservative Democrats vs. the Liberal Democrats. There were no Republicans.

Beginning in the 1980s, the Conservative Democrats all became Republicans. Now the Liberal Democrats are the only Democrats left.

[Bubba_Leroy]

I agree. I think it will be Amy Coney Barrett. After Ginsberg croaks, I hope her replacement will be Amul Thapar.

My guess is the other way around. I think that Trump will pick Thapar to replace Kennedy and Barrett to replace Ginsburg.

Either way will make Democrats' heads explode, which is always entertaining to watch.

[Kalamata]

I was thinking that he could say to McTurd, “Push Amy through quickly, and the next vacancy will be Thapar”. McTurd really likes Thapar (same home state), so I thought maybe POTUS would use McTurd’s wish for Thapar as leverage to first get Amy. But maybe I’m thinking too much, lol.

Yes, it will be very interesting to see. It’s like a daily soap opera : )

[poconopundit]

Kavanaugh has two strikes against him right off the bat: 1) he’s a Bushie and 2) the National GOPe Review thinks he’s just swell.

[servantboy777]

Yea...she’z an outlier, but her allegiance is not to America or Texas. She might as well be a Mexican citizen.

Many of the wackiest dem politicians in Texas are NOT native Texans. Al Green (Louisiana), Sheila Jackson Lee (Queens, NY), Wendy Davis (Rhode Island).

Texas democrats tend to be a lil more conservative than the Northeast, Left Coast democrats and republicans. There is I grant you a shift in the democrat party to the hard left.

Maryland...absolutely beautiful state, but full tilt bozo left.

[BobL]

I get the NeverTrumper part, but if he’s truly a conservative, who cares? Trump will be gone long before him.

[Albion Wilde]

Advantages of Lee:
1. Age 47.
2. Relatively easy confirmation.
3. Unlikely to “evolve”, as he has remained strongly conservative throughout his tenure in the Senate.

Disadvantages of Lee:

1. A-hole.