Trump news: Push to ram through Supreme Court pick by election day, as Democrats say RBG ‘turning in grave’

Trump claims Black Lives Matter are ‘destroying many Black lives’

Donald Trump mocked a protestor while speaking at a rally in ‘battleground’ Pennsylvania on Saturday night. 

The president trails Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the Keystone State by 4.3 per cent, according to an average of polls tabulated by RealClearPolitics. But Mr Trump and his campaign aides say their polling, like in 2016, shows a far closer race there.

The incident comes after a progressive activist group of Democrat supporters announced they had purchased the internet domain name www.amyconeybarrett.com in an attempt to fight Ms Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court - a move which they say confirms Mr Trump's efforts to take over the US judicial system.

Mr Trump urged Republicans, who hold a 53-47 Senate majority, to confirm judge Barrett, a federal appeals court judge and a favorite of religious conservatives, by the 3 November election.

He has said he expects the justices to have to resolve the election in which he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

The Supreme Court has only once in U.S. history had to resolve a presidential election, in 2000. Mr Trump also has declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.

"I look forward to meeting with the nominee next week and will carefully study her record and credentials," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has made confirming Mr Trump's judicial appointments a paramount priority. "As I have stated, this nomination will receive a vote on the Senate floor in the weeks ahead."

Judge Barrett is expected to begin meetings with individual senators on Tuesday. Mr Trump said the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by his ally Senator Lindsey Graham, would begin confirmation hearings on 12 October.

Like Mr Trump's two other appointees, Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, judge Barrett is young enough that she could serve for decades in the lifetime job, leaving a lasting conservative imprint. Mr Trump's two previous appointments were surrounded by controversy.

The president was able to appoint Justice Gorsuch to fill the vacancy left by Scalia's 2016 death only because Mr McConnell refused to let the Senate consider Obama's nominee Merrick Garland because it was an election year, an action with little precedent in US history. Democrats now accuse him of hypocrisy.

Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed after a tumultuous confirmation process during which a California university professor accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1983 when both were high school students in Maryland. The justice denied the allegation and portrayed himself as the victim of an "orchestrated political hit" by Democrats. 

Reuters contributed to this report. Check out The Independent’s live coverage below:

Key points:

• Trump thanks audience member after heckler is ejected from rally
• Portland police make arrests at Proud Boys march, before clashing with counter-protesters 

[27 September 2020 14:34 · Gino Spocchia]

Joe Biden to deliver speech on Supreme Court

The Democratic nominee is due to address Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination on Sunday, in a speech delivered from Wilmington, Delaware.

Mr Biden has already called on Republican lawmakers in Congress not to rush hearings on the US president’s nomination that comes within weeks of election day.

[27 September 2020 14:02 · Gino Spocchia]

Democrats plea with Barrett over Supreme Court’s possible election roll 

With Senate hearings on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett due to take place in Ocotober, just days before election day, Democrats have already pleaded with her against any cases that could decide the vote’s outcome.

The US president has already said  he expects all nine justices to potentially decide the election due to mail-ballots, saying this week that "I think this will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it's very important that we have nine justices," 

Although US law requires justices to step aside when there is a conflict of interest or genuine question of bias, it leaves the individual justice to decide whether such a conflict exists. Aside from direct financial and personal conflicts, they rarely do so.

"This will be hotly debated by members of the judiciary committee as well as legal ethicists but I suspect many of us will end up pressing that question in whatever form," said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a member of the committee, in an interview with NPR last week.

He added that "every standard of judicial conduct would suggest that where you have a complicated relationship, where you have arguably an ethical complication as a judge, you should recuse yourself."

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN last week, before Barrett was officially named, that the nominee would not have to recuse herself and that the issue had not come up during interviews.

Reuters

[27 September 2020 13:49 · Gino Spocchia]

When will Senate vote on Trump’s Supreme Court pick?

Announcing on Saturday that Amy Coney Barrett would be his third Supreme Court nominee, the US president said voting to confirm her appointment would likely start on 12 October, and that he expected a full Senate vote before the election on 3 November.

"It's going to go fast. We're looking to do it before the election. So it's going to go very fast," said Mr Trump of the hearings that will be conducted on an accelerated timeline. 

Thanks to a Republican-controlled Senate voting on his nominee before the election, cementing a 6-3 conservative majority on the court, Democratic opposition to the appointment will unlikely stop Ms Barrett being confirmed. 

If that happens, Ms Barrett will replace liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on 18 September.

Democrats have argued that the appointment comes too close to the election, which the US president has claimed could be decided by the Supreme Court, citing - without basis - that mail-in ballots are fraudulent. Despite that, he told supporters at a rally on Saturday:"I don't want to end up in the Supreme Court, and I don't want to end up in Congress, either. Even though we have an advantage if we go back to Congress. Does everyone understand that?"

Despite that, he told supporters at a rally on Saturday: "I don't want to end up in the Supreme Court, and I don't want to end up in Congress, either. Even though we have an advantage if we go back to Congress. Does everyone understand that?"

Additional reporting by Reuters

[27 September 2020 13:19 · Gino Spocchia]

Republicans spending $10 million advertising Trump’s Supreme Court pick

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is putting Donald Trump’s nomination for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, front and centre with voters just weeks before election day - and a crucial confirmation process - that will see  $10 million (£7.8 million) spent on advertising to promote the president’s choice. 

 According to the RNC, a digital ad campaign combined with local events across the country will encourage Republican voters in battleground states to return their mail-in ballots, go to the polls, and support Ms Barrett's confirmation amid Democratic criticism. 

"With a full-throttled effort from now until president Trump's nominee is confirmed, our teams will expose Democrats' partisanship, aggressively promote the qualifications of Judge Barrett, and use this issue to galvanize voters to the polls in November," said RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.

Filling the vacancy created by the death of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been an unexpected political opportunity for the US president, who won the White House in 2016 in large part because conservatives were animated around filling the seat opened by the death of justice Antonin Scalia.

Associated Press

[27 September 2020 12:42 · Gino Spocchia]

Trump disputes ‘Russia if you’re listening’ plea before 2016 Clinton email leak

Donald Trump made another false statement on Saturday night during his latest rally in battleground Pennsylvania, claiming he uttered his “Russia, if you’re listening” line in 2016 about the contents of Democratic emails as a campaign rally joke rather than the press conference where he actually said it.

Days later, Wikileaks published reams of emails from then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and other top party officials.

Whilst the president claims he made the plea to Russia as a joke at a rally, he first made those comments at a widely reported press conference in July 2016: "Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," referring to emails from a private e-mail server while Ms Clinton was Secretary of State under the Obama administration. 

The independent fact-checking organisation PolitiFact has also ruled his “joking” and “being sarcastic” claims as “false.”

John T Benett has the full story: 

[27 September 2020 12:27 · Gino Spocchia]

Cast of Veep reunites for Democratic fundraiser in Wisconsin 

American actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus has announced a virtual reunion with her former Veep castmembers, as a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

The event will take place on 4 October at 6pm alongside Anna Chlumsky, Reid Scott, Sam Richardson, Tim Simons, Tony Hale, Clea Duvall and Matt Walsh, along with some surprise guests.

“All roads to the White House go through the great state of Wisconsin. Trump can’t win re-election if he doesn’t win Wisconsin,” Louis-Dreyfus said in a video, as she announced the reunion. 

Roisin O’Connor reports: 

[27 September 2020 12:06 · Gino Spocchia]

Why did Proud Boys march on Saturday?

The self-declared "Western chauvinist" Proud Boys group had forecast a crowd of at least 10,000 before Saturday’s event, leading to state governor Kate Brown declaring a weekend state of emergency for Oregon's biggest city, saying large numbers of "white supremacist groups" were travelling from out of state to attend the rally.

In the end, police said fewer than 1,000 turned-up, some dressed in trademark black and yellow polo shirts and body armour,  in protest against what they dub “domestic terrorism” in the Democrat-run city, which has now seen four months of protests over police involvement in the deaths of both George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. 

"They've allowed 120 days of rioting and looting and murder happening within our streets and we're locals so we're just tired of this, that's why we're out here today," said Haley Adams, a Proud Boys member, who wore an anti-stab vest and a stars and stripes bandanna.

The group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, said in video on the group's Parler page that "It's crazy that it takes us to come here to solve things," 

After the largely peaceful march broke-up, police were seen in videos shared online clashing with counter-protesters, leading to at least 12 arrests. 

Law enforcement then declared an unlawful assembly late on Saturday, forcing hundreds to disperse from an area outside the courthouse.

Meanwhile, reporters and members of the press sent to cover both demonstrations were later struck with police batons, in alarming footage shared to Twitter. 

Additional reporting by Reuters

[27 September 2020 11:36 · Gino Spocchia]

Portland police clash with anti-racism protesters after right-wing rally

Demonstrations in Portland overnight lead to the city’s police department clashing with anti-racism protesters, some of whom threw bricks and objects at officers, following a march carried-out by members of the right-wing Proud Boys’ group on Saturday.

According to reports, the Proud Boy’s rally attracted less than a 1,000 attendees, despite suggesting around 10,000 people would join demonstrations calling to end what they called "domestic terrorism" in Democratic-run Portland.

Videos shared online showed police pushing left-wing counter protesters and press photographers to the ground - striking them with batons as officers drove them out of an area near Portland's federal courthouse.

Police made four arrests at the Proud Boys rally, amid a weekend state of emergency for Oregon's biggest city having been called before both gatherings.

Reuters

[27 September 2020 11:19 · Sam Hancock]

Trump thanks audience member after heckler is ejected from rally

After mocking a protestor at his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday night, Donald Trump thanked a loyalist supporter who helped to shut the heckler down.

“Are you in law enforcement?” Mr Trump asked the silencer, before ridiculing the heckler: “He hadn’t gotten the first word out. He’s going home to his parent now - he’s in big trouble."

The president then commended the “gentleman in the beautiful blue” (a not-so subtle reference to the US police force), telling the cheering crowd: “That’s the kind of guy I want working for me.”

John T Bennett has the full story:

(Getty)

Trump mocks protester and thanks audience member after heckler ejected from rally

[27 September 2020 11:05 · Sam Hancock]

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