Subject: RE: scotus round up
From: "Palermo, Rachel" <[email-masked]>
To: CommsApproval_D <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Freundlich, Christina" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 13:08:26 -0700

Christina and I worked on this. For approval please!

Job well done, Senator McConnell

It's the moment that Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley have been waiting for - to lay the pathway for a Donald Trump Supreme Court nominee.  Senate Republicans have refused to consider and allow a fair process for Chief Judge Merrick Garland, failing to do the job they were elected to do by the voters. And Dangerous Donald is whom the GOP has chosen to make critical decisions in leading our nation, including filling the Supreme Court's vacancy.

Senator Chuck Grassley-a staunch opponent of doing his job and considering the President's nominee-has even conceded that it would be a "gamble<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-grassley-trump-supreme-court_us_57223b28e4b0f309baefffb3>" to let Trump fill the SCOTUS vacancy. The American people agree-62 percent<http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2015/NationalSupremeCourtPoll31016.pdf> of voters don't trust Donald Trump to nominate the new Supreme Court justice. In fact, the GOP's presumptive nominee is now the most unpopular major-party nominee in American history. A recent CNN/ORC poll<http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/05/04/rel6b.-.2016.general.pdf> found that 64 percent of women, 73 percent of non-whites, and 37 percent of conservatives say they dislike Trump.

The American public understands that Dangerous Donald lacks the judgement to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. When will the GOP?
Here's what some people are saying:

<https://twitter.com/MikeDorning/status/727875898205216768>
<https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/727848646193106944>
<https://twitter.com/julieroginsky/status/727670173000404992>

Some conservatives are starting to realize blocking Merrick Garland is a big mistake<http://www.vox.com/2016/5/4/11591178/merrick-garland-supreme-court-trump>

VOX // DYLAN MATTHEWS

With Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, the stakes for the Supreme Court<http://www.vox.com/2016/3/16/11249220/merrick-garland-supreme-court-explained> have become startlingly clear. The position of the Senate GOP under majority leader Mitch McConnell has always been that the next president should decide on Antonin Scalia's replacement - and that, accordingly, they will not so much as consider Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland.

Now that position translates to: We think Donald Trump should pick the next Supreme Court justice.

Dems: Trump wins us the Senate and Garland<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/democrats-trump-supreme-court-222797>

POLITICO // EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

Donald Trump threw a big party Tuesday night. So did every Democrat running for Senate.

The party's Senate candidates are brimming with excitement about spending the next six months hitting their opponents with Trump - and being able to tie their case together by saying that Republicans' opposition to President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick means they want a President Trump to fill the vacancy.

Donald Trump Has Put the GOP in an Impossible Position on Merrick Garland<http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/trump-merrick-garland-and-the-gops-catch-22.html>

NEW YORK MAGAZINE // ERIC LEVITZ

...

Recent polls<http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/25/politics/merrick-garland-supreme-court-nominee/> show that a majority of Americans believe Garland deserves a hearing. A new PPP survey<http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/05/ohioans-want-kasich-to-drop-out.html> of Ohio found 65 percent of voters saying that Obama's pick merits formal consideration. Granted, there probably isn't a human being in America (with the possible exception of Garland himself) whose main concern when selecting a senator is whether or not he or she will hold hearings whenever they're appropriate. But with Trump at the top of the ticket, swing-state Republicans will want to assure voters that the GOP is not a radical party. It will be difficult for Portman to do that while refusing to recognize the president's constitutional right to appoint Supreme Court justices.

The GOP's Supreme Court wreck: Nominee Trump puts obstructionist Republicans in an impossible position<http://www.salon.com/2016/05/04/the_gops_supreme_court_wreck_nominee_trump_puts_obstructionist_republicans_in_an_impossible_position/>
SALON // SIMON MALOY
The words "presumptive nominee Donald Trump<http://www.salon.com/2016/05/04/defeated_say_goodbye_to_ted_cruz_and_say_hello_to_gop_nominee_donald_trump/>" present a political problem for Republicans as they try to reconcile the tension between party loyalty and Trump's uniquely toxic identity.
...

Well, Republican voters have had their say, and they chose Donald Trump. So the official position of the Republican leadership in the Senate is that they can't confirm Merrick Garland or any other nominee because the former host of "Celebrity Apprentice" deserves to be given a crack at determining the future of the high court.
...

They can keep obstructing and making the case that the nomination should be decided after the new administration takes power, but they'll be doing no favors to themselves or their colleagues up for reelection. Grassley's approval rating in Iowa has taken a massive hit<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/poll-grassley-approval-takes-hit> since the SCOTUS obstruction started, and vulnerable Republicans in blue and purple states across the country are going to be caught between Donald Trump, their party leadership, and the voters as they struggle to explain why there shouldn't be a vote on Obama's nominee... Grassley himself has acknowledged<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-grassley-trump-supreme-court_us_57223b28e4b0f309baefffb3> that letting Trump fill vacancies on the Supreme Court is "a gamble."