Republicans foil planned vote for Trump judge by not showing up

A scheduled vote to advance the nomination of judicial nominee Emil Bove will have to wait, due to Republicans failing to have enough senators present.

That's according to Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio, who tweeted Tuesday that Republicans are unable to hold the vote due to "GOP attendance issues." Desiderio reported that Sens. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) missed previous votes on Tuesday, and Vice President JD Vance is out of town and unable to step in to cast a tie-breaking vote.

Because Republicans have only a 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate, they can only afford to lose three members on a given vote if they hope to have Vance break the tie, but can only lose two on any vote if Vance is unavailable. And because Bove is a particularly controversial appointee, it's unlikely any Democrats would miss the vote or side with Republicans.

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Democrats are deeply opposed to Bove's nomination to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals for a number of reasons. As a top DOJ official, Bove was behind the dropping of federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams for allegedly taking bribes from Turkish government officials. Bove was also behind the mass firings of DOJ prosecutors who worked cases involving participants in the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

However, the chief reason Democrats want to prevent Bove's confirmation involves the accusations of a DOJ whistleblower who said President Donald Trump's high-profile judicial appointee instructed agency employees to disregard a federal judge's order. Former DOJ attorney Erez Reuvini said Bove advised the department to tell the courts "f--- you" in response to efforts to halt Trump's deportations of undocumented immigrants to an El Salvador mega-prison earlier this year.

If confirmed, the 44 year-old Bove would sit on the 3rd Circuit for the rest of his life, with jurisdiction over federal district courts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And as a circuit court judge, Bove would be just one step away from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), whose members typically come from various circuit appellate courts across the country. Trump-appointed SCOTUS Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh came from the 7th, 10th and D.C. Circuits, respectively.

Click here to read Desiderio's initial report.

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