This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article. Contact: editor@commondreams.org
By Jake Johnson
The progressive advocacy group Demand Justice on Wednesday launched a seven-figure advertising campaign targeting three members of the Senate Democratic caucus who have voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s lifetime judicial nominees, enabling the ongoing right-wing takeover of the nation’s courts.
The first series of ads will target Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Angus King (D-Maine), three of the 16 members of the Senate Democratic caucus who have voted to confirm at least one Trump judge this year. Other Senate Democrats who have voted with Republicans in support of at least one Trump judicial pick include Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Adam Schiff of California, and Chris Coons of Delaware.
“It is outrageous that Senate Democrats are voting to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees who refuse to tell the truth about January 6th and the 2020 election,” Josh Orton, the president of Demand Justice, said in a statement. “This isn’t normal. If Senate Democrats don’t take a stand and strongly oppose these judicial nominees who have disqualified themselves—we will. And we won’t let up.”
The group’s campaign will also include a national cable TV ad buy and “coordinated digital rollout across key battleground states” naming and shaming Democrats who support “Trump loyalist judges” even as the lawmakers condemn the president’s authoritarian assault on democracy.
Watch the Demand Justice ad targeting Maggie Hassan, who on Tuesday voted to confirm Lindsey Ann Freeman, Trump’s nominee to the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Freeman, like other Trump judicial picks, refused during her confirmation process to say directly that the president lost the 2020 election.
“President Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 presidential election and served as the 46th President of the United States,” Freeman wrote in response to questions from Durbin, who ultimately voted in favor of her confirmation.
In a report released last month, Demand Justice analyzed Trump judicial picks’ written responses to senators’ questions. The analysis shows that “nominees’ responses appear nearly identical, with many nominees using verbatim phrasing, repeating key words, and, overall, using unusual and evasive language that’s almost entirely outside the normal, historical, and common lexicon used to describe such events.”
“Every nominee provided near-identical phrasing to avoid a direct answer about the 2020 election, instead referencing the results of the congressional ‘certification’ process, or answering by noting that President Biden ‘served’ as president,” the report notes. “And 21 of 27 nominees provided extremely similar responses in regard to January 6, often describing what transpired as a ‘political issue’ and refusing to comment further.”
Orton of Demand Justice said that “it is unprecedented for lifetime nominees to the federal bench to provide dishonest and misleading answers about historical facts—and it is deeply concerning that Trump’s nominees are parroting such strikingly similar language, the president’s own language, to avoid telling the truth.”
That more than a dozen Senate Democrats still voted to confirm at least one of those nominees is “simply unacceptable,” said Orton.
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