How one top Dem is building the 'strongest barrier against' Trump

26 December 2024

When President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term on January 20, 2025, Republicans will have control of both chambers of Congress.

The GOP will have a 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate under Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), and a small Republican majority will still control the U.S. House of Representatives — although it remains to be seen whether or not Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) will continue as House speaker next year.

Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-New York) time as Senate majority leader is winding down. But according to Politico's Eugene Daniels, Schumer has been trying to prepare for 2025 by helping make the federal judiciary as Trump-proof as he can.

"Four years ago," Daniels reports in the Politico Playbook column, "Schumer launched a plan, along with President Joe Biden, to use the party's Senate majority to prioritize not just passing legislation, but also, pushing through as many judicial nominations as possible…. And now, those judges are likely to be the tip of the spear in protecting Democrats' legislative achievements over the last four years — as well as Republican attempts to remake or dismantle parts of the federal government."

Schumer told Politico, "When we started out, we knew it would be a very difficult job to do more than Trump had done. But we did: We got 235 — more than a quarter of the federal judiciary was appointed by our Senate and by the president…. We knew that getting more judges on the bench would help protect our legislative record."

The Senate majority leader added that legislative accomplishments and judicial appointments "go hand in hand."

Schumer told Politico, "If you asked me which one was more important, I wouldn’t want to pick among my children."

According to Schumer, him and Biden have been very much in sync when it comes to getting federal judges confirmed."

"When I became majority leader," Schumer told Politico, "I said, 'This is something we have to work on, we have to focus on.' We would go to members and persuade them in two ways: Persuade some of them to vote for these judges because the Republicans threw all kinds of charges — mainly false — against them. And second, I had to persuade them that this was really important.

Schumer also told Politico, "I don't know exactly what (Trump will) do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does."

Read Eugene Daniels' full Politico Playbook column at this link.

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