Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal appeared as a guest Monday on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” where he slammed the Trump-friendly federal judiciary nominees who have refused to say Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, calling them “pathetic and ridiculous.”
“What these answers demonstrated to me was a fear of Donald Trump that would absolutely indicate their lack of independence,” Blumenthal told MS NOW viewers Monday. “We tend to forget, amidst all of the chaos and confusion in the Trump administration, what he is doing to the federal judiciary, which is really a bulwark for our freedom. It’s proved to be a kind of firewall, not always, but at least at the district court level, a guarantee of certain rights and liberties.”
“Here we have a whole generation of federal judges without that sense of independence and impartiality,” Blumenthal continued. “For most people, the federal district judge sitting in their state, whether it’s Tennessee or Connecticut, is the face and voice of justice. And not only would they refuse to say that Joe Biden won the election, they had this rehearsed answer, which they all repeated.”
“Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire rolled a clip of a Federal Judiciary Committee hearing last week, in which Blumenthal pointedly asked multiple of the nominees present who won the 2020 election. Nearly all of them replied or echoed that Biden had been “certified the winner.” You can watch the full clip yourself below.
Blumenthal added that the nominees’ answers were so befuddling they confused even Iowa Senator and Federal Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley.
“There was a moment when Senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the committee, turned to one of his staff. He forgot to turn off his mic and said, in effect, ‘Why can’t these people just say Joe Biden won the election?’” Blumenthal recalled, adding, “It’s because of the vengeance and vanity of Donald Trump.”
“Maybe there is some kind of game plan here. But I think they have been just rehearsed to give that stock answer,” the Connecticut senator concluded. “I think it makes them look pathetic and ridiculous in front of their own family to be put on the spot and fail to show some independence.”
