White House pushes back on Trump call to halt confirmations in lame duck period

A White House spokesperson on Monday pushed back on President-elect Trump’s demand that the Democratic Senate stop confirming judges during the lame-duck period before he takes office and the upper chamber flips to GOP control.

Senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates in a statement pointed to past precedent and the “real-life toll” such a pause would take on constituents to reject Trump’s request, which he posted over the weekend on social media. 

“Regardless of party, the American people expect their leaders to prioritize the rule of law and ensuring the criminal justice system can function effectively in every state,” Bates said in a statement to The Hill. “Delaying the confirmation of strongly qualified, experienced judges takes a real-life toll on constituents and leads to backlogs of criminal cases — meaning there is every urgent reason for Republicans and Democrats to continue working together in good faith to staff the federal bench.”

Bates noted that the then-GOP-led Senate confirmed 55 nominee during the lame duck period of Trump’s first term after President Biden had won the 2020 election, including 18 judges.

“There is no excuse for choosing partisanship over enforcing the rule of law,” Bates said.

Democrats still hold a narrow majority in the Senate until the new session of Congress gets seated in early January. Republicans are poised to have at least 52 Senate seats in the next Congress, with GOP nominee David McCormick leading in the Pennsylvania race that is still too close to call.

Trump on Sunday weighed in on the ongoing GOP Senate leadership race, posting on Truth Social that anyone seeking the top job must be willing to make recess appointments, which can allow a president to appoint nominees without going through the confirmation process. 

In the same post, Trump wrote that “no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership.”