President Donald Trump‘s White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday Trump “absolutely” stands by his Supreme Court selection.
Trump falsely accused Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal Thursday of misrepresenting his Supreme Court nominee’s words, according to several familiar with the incident.
Blumenthal said Wednesday that Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee, told him he found Trump’s attack on a federal judge on Twitter “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”
Within a half-hour, Gorsuch spokesman Ron Bonjean, who was tapped by the White House to head communications for Gorsuch, confirmed that the nominee, Gorsuch, used those words in his meeting with Blumenthal. Several other senators, including Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, later relayed similar accounts of Gorsuch forcefully criticizing Trump’s public attacks on the judiciary branch.
Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch calls Trump’s tweets ‘disheartening’
On Thursday, Blumenthal said on MSNBC Gorsuch specifically told him he “should feel free to mention what I said about these attacks being disheartening and demoralizing.”
None of that stopped Trump from firing off a shot against Blumenthal — and at the same time raising questions about the coherence of the White House’s messaging.
Gorsuch’s criticism came in response to Trump’s recent criticism of federal judges who have ruled against his immigration ban or appear poised to do so, in particular in reference to one of the President’s tweets slamming one of those judges as a “so-called judge.”
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday Trump “absolutely” stands by his selection of Gorsuch, as well his own past comments about the federal judges who are hearing arguments over the legality of his immigration executive order.
“No, the President doesn’t have any regrets,” Spicer said during his daily press briefing.
“He has no regrets,” Spicer repeated, saying that Gorsuch’s remarks weren’t referring to any specific federal judge or court.
Fellow Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy came to Blumenthal’s defense Thursday, lashing out in a tweet directed at Trump:
Bonjean had confirmed Gorsuch called Trump’s tweet about the “so-called judge” “disheartening” and “demoralizing” in his conversation with Blumenthal.
Blumenthal, meanwhile, stood by his accounting of Gorsuch’s comments, telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day” Thursday morning he “absolutely and accurately” stated what Gorsuch told him.
“I think that the President needs to hear from Judge Gorsuch about exactly what he is saying to myself and Senate colleagues,” Blumenthal said. “Maybe he simply hasn’t been informed and that’s the reason for his tweet.”
Former GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is helping shepherd Gorsuch’s nomination on the Hill said in a statement Thursday Gorsuch has told senators “he finds any criticism of a judge’s integrity and independence disheartening and demoralizing.”
Ayotte added the judge has made clear he “could not comment on any specific cases and that judicial ethics prevent him from commenting on political matters.”
Sasse also confirmed Thursday that Gorsuch criticized Trump’s attacks on the federal judge in a meeting with him as well.
Sasse said Gorsuch “got pretty passionate” about the topic, particularly when he asked Gorsuch about Trump’s “so-called judge” tweet.
“This is a guy who welled up with some energy. He said any attack on any brothers or sisters of the robe is an attack on all judges. He believes in an an independent judiciary,” Sasse said Thursday morning on MSNBC.
Military service
Trump’s dig at Blumenthal’s military service is a reference to Blumenthal’s past misrepresentations about his service during the Vietnam era.
Blumenthal obtained multiple military deferments to avoid getting drafted into the Vietnam War and ultimately landed in the Marine Corps Reserve and never deployed to Vietnam, though he claimed multiple times he had served in Vietnam. Blumenthal apologized for misrepresenting his service in 2010.
While Blumenthal enlisted in the Marine Reserve after multiple deferments, Trump — who was also eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War — never enlisted, instead obtaining multiple student deferments and ultimately a medical deferment for a bone spur to avoid the military draft.
Earlier in the week, Murphy said Trump’s words comparing the United States to Russia are “as scary as it gets.”
“This is as scary as it gets and they need to get to the bottom of what this is all about,” the the Democrat told CNN. “What is this strange relationship between Putin and Trump? And is there something that the Russians have on him that is causing him to say these really bizarre things on an almost daily basis?”
Trump appeared to equate US actions with the authoritarian regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview released Saturday.
Trump told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that he respected his Russian counterpart.
“But he’s a killer,” O’Reilly responded.
“There are a lot of killers” Trump replied. “You think our country’s so innocent?”
The President has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for suggesting that the American government behaves in a way comparable to Russia’s.
“If you want to believe the worst here, if you want to believe that Putin is literally pulling the strings of this administration, then this is exactly how it would play out,” Murphy said. “You would be making moral equivalences between Putin’s killing of journalists, political opponents and U.S. military activities.”
The lawmaker also said Trump has downplayed Russia’s offenses in eastern Ukraine and hinted at withdrawing sanctions from Russia.
