Trump again prods GOP to block Biden judges after Monday night Senate slowdown

President-elect Donald Trump is once again demanding Senate Republicans block confirmation of additional Biden administration judicial nominations — something his party can delay but not stop, as they don’t control the floor.

“Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line — No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

His plea comes after Senate Republicans moved to slow down the pace of judicial nomination confirmations on Monday evening, forcing the chamber into hours of routine votes.

There’s some optimism in GOP quarters that they may be able to actually block some of the Biden nominees on Wednesday, with Vice President-elect JD Vance expected back on Capitol Hill for meetings with senators on several of Trump’s announced Cabinet picks.

“We could win, possibly, some of those votes if we have all our folks, particularly on the circuit court nominees,” Sen. John Hoeveen (R-N.D.) said. “We’re going to have some dialogue and try to see if we can’t get everyone back.”

Defeating the nominees would require Democratic absences, assuming their conference has no defectors. Vance defended his absence from a Monday vote as being immaterial to result, since there were other GOP senators missing.

“I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director,” Vance said in a post on X. “I tend to think it's more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45.”

But other Republican senators were irate at the absences, arguing the missing GOP lawmakers cost them a shot at defeating several of the nominees.

“We had some of these judges killed — dead as Woodrow Wilson — and our vote wasn't there,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee. “There's no excuse for that. Our job is to be here and vote.”

View from 1600 Pennsylvania: The White House took a swing at soon-to-be GOP Leader John Thune for his conference’s decision to slow walk Biden judicial nominees in the lame duck, noting Thune made comments on filling such vacancies during a similar situation for Republicans four years ago.

“Senator Thune was correct in 2020 when he said senators have every urgent reason to continue working together in good faith to staff the federal bench,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates. “There is no excuse for choosing partisanship over enforcing the rule of law.”

What happened? Senators initially confirmed Embry Kidd to an appeals court post by a 49-45 vote on Monday evening. But then the roadblocks began.

Moving between executive session — to consider nominations — and legislative session — to consider bills — is normally done by unanimous consent, but Republicans forced votes on those procedural actions throughout the evening.

Those votes only required a simple majority, so Democrats were able to easily pass them. But they had to stay close to the chamber.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was unbowed by the procedural obstacles. “We'll keep going,” he said Monday on the floor. “The Senate is going to keep prioritizing judicial and administrative confirmations this week, this month, and for the rest of this year.”

As the votes wore on, patience grew short. Schumer vowed to enforce vote time limits, cutting them off after 12 minutes. “It doesn't matter who's here,” he said.

Even some Republicans weren’t pleased with the drawn-out process, which looks likely to continue throughout the week.

“It was very frustrating last night that we spent many hours on procedural votes when we could have been doing an appropriations package,” said Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

In the end: Schumer made a series of procedural motions to end debate on the following 12 judicial picks.

• Mustafa Kasubhai to be district judge for the District of Oregon
• Sarah Russell to be district judge for the District of Connecticut
• Rebecca Pennell to be district judge for the Eastern District of Washington
• Brian Murphy to be district judge for the District of Massachusetts
• Anne Hwang to be district judge for the Central District of California
• Cynthia Dixon to be district judge for the Central District of California
• Catherine Henry to be district judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Sparkle Sooknanan to be district judge for the District of Columbia
• Amir Ali to be district judge for the District of Columbia
• Noël Wise to be district judge for the Northern District of California
• Gail Weilheimer to be district judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Sharad Desai to be district judge for the District of Arizona

Remember: Trump actually got a bloc of his own judges through the Senate with Democratic cooperation even after he lost the 2020 election to Biden, so there’s precedent for continuing the confirmation in the waning days of a majority.

Next up: Votes various judicial picks are expected throughout the day — and for the rest of the week.

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.