The Daily Signal - How Trump Is Reshaping the Courts

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

President Donald Trump's nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh may be the most high profile judicial nominations he's made, but they're far from the only. "One out of every 4 active judges on the United States Court of Appeals have been appointed by President Trump," says Adam Kennedy, deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of communications at the White House. "And the average age is actually a full 10 years younger for these justices than under President [Barack] Obama." We also cover these stories: A federal judge blocked President Trump’s conscience rule for health providers. Mexican authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with the killing of 9 members of a Mormon family in northern Mexico. We share part of Carly Fiorina's interview with Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, November 7th. I'm Rachel Del Judice. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, if you're a Republican president these days, getting federal judges confirmed by the Senate is harder than it's ever been. Over the last three years, Democrats have dragged out judicial confirmations into a time-consuming ordeal. But that hasn't stopped the progress. As of now, President Trump has 157 federal judges that he nominated sitting on the federal bench. Today, our executive editor, Rob Blewey, will talk to Adam Kennedy, a deputy assistant to President Trump. They'll discuss all the progress that's been made on confirming judges. Plus, Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James recently joined Carly Fiorena on her podcast. We'll share a clip from that conversation.

And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encourage your friends and family to subscribe. Now on to our top news. Kentucky Democrat Andy Brashear called for a smooth transition on Wednesday after claiming victory in the state's governor race. But Matt Bevin, the Republican incumbent, isn't conceding. On Wednesday, he officially requested a recanvass of all votes. His campaign said, the people of Kentucky deserve a fair and honest election. With reports of irregularities, we are exercising the right to ensure that every lawful vote was counted. Bevin trailed the Democrat by just over 5,000 votes with all precincts reporting.

His defeat would come as an upset in a state where President Trump won by 30 percentage points. House Democrats released another transcript Wednesday. This time, it's the testimony of Bill Taylor, a U.S. diplomat to Ukraine. Taylor said that the U.S. withheld aid from Ukraine to entice the country to look into enemies of President Donald Trump. Taylor said he witnessed the U.S. trying to get the Ukrainian president to investigate whether Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election, as well as Burisma, the gas company that employed Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son. Taylor, who disclosed this information to lawmakers on October 22nd, will be testifying publicly next week with two other colleagues before the House Intelligence Committee. Well, a federal judge blocked President Trump's conscience rule for health providers on Wednesday. The rule would have withheld federal funds from hospitals that refused to let their

doctors and nurses abstain from participating in abortions and other procedures they might find morally objectionable. The ruling came from District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan after nearly two dozen states sued the administration. They argued that patient access to abortion and other procedures trumped the conscience rights of health care providers. The rule was set to go into effect later this month. The White House is retreating on its call for $8.6 billion in border wall funding as it works out budgeting for the 2020 fiscal year. That's according to a source familiar with negotiations per roll call. Congress has allocated no more than $1.4 billion for border wall funding for each of the past two fiscal years.

According to the unnamed source, the ball is in Congress's court and Trump doesn't want to see another partial government shutdown on November 22nd. when current funding runs out. Mexican authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with the killing of nine members of a Mormon family in northern Mexico. The suspect was found near the Arizona border with two hostages who were bound and gagged inside a vehicle. Investigators found him with four rifles in a bulletproof SUV. Officials believe the nine U.S. family members who were killed Monday may have been caught in the crossfire of rival drug cartels. And up next, Rob Bluie discusses federal judges with President Trump's deputy assistant, Adam Kennedy. Tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger government, become a part of the Heritage Foundation.

We're fighting the rising tide of homegrown socialism while developing conservative solutions that make families more free and more prosperous. Find out more at heritage.org. President Donald Trump celebrated his administration's judicial appointments at a White House ceremony on Wednesday. He gathered with U.S. senators and other supporters to mark the occasion of having confirmed more than 150 judicial nominees, a pace that puts him ahead of his predecessors. Now one out of every four circuit judges currently on the bench was appointed by this administration, and that number has now exceeded that by quite a bit. no president in history has confirmed as many circuit court judges, even close, not even close, in such a short period of time. We're joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Adam Kennedy.

He's a deputy assistant to President Trump and deputy director of communications at the White House. Adam, thanks for taking the time to do the interview. Thanks so much for having me out. Well, we're going to get to impeachment in just a few moments, but I first want to ask you about some good news coming out of Capitol Hill in the White House, which probably doesn't get the attention that it deserves. And since President Trump took office, this administration has now worked with the Senate to confirm 157 federal judges. Again, that's 157 federal judges. That includes 43 judges to the Federal Circuit Court and two justices to the Supreme Court,

of course, Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh. So, Adam, tell us why this is such a priority for President Trump. Well, I think what we're doing really is reshaping the courts of this country that have long been dominated by Democratic appointees. Right now, we actually have one out of every four active judges on the United States Court of Appeals have been appointed by President Trump. And the average age is actually a full 10 years younger for these justices than under President Obama. So I think what the president is doing is putting a lasting stamp on the courts that are going to go well past his second term. The Heritage Foundation has a judicial appointment tracker, which keeps track of these things pretty closely, and it puts President Trump ahead of every president since Ronald Reagan at this

point in their presidencies, including 54 more confirmations than President Obama had at this time. How has President Trump been able to accomplish this? Well, we've been pushing really hard and working hand-in-hand with the Senate to make sure that we have qualified judges on these courts, judges who are going to interpret the Constitution as written, and to make sure that they move at a quick pace and that we have the most qualified people capable to sit on the benches. And we're seeing the results. We've actually already flipped two different courts, the Third Circuit and the Eleventh have already flipped over because of this. I'm sorry, the Second Amendment. And we're going to continue to make progress.

One of those Circuit Court nominees is Lawrence Van Dyke, who is awaiting Senate confirmation for a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, the American Bar Association came under fire for its rating of Van Dyke, and the nominee was actually moved to tears during his Senate confirmation hearing. Let's listen to this exchange with Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. The letter also says that you would not commit to being fair to litigants before you, notably members of the LGBTQ community. Can you speak to that?

Did you say that you wouldn't be fair to members of the LGBT community? Senator, that was the part of the letter. I did not say that. I apologize. It's all right. I did not say that. I do not believe that. It is a fundamental belief in mind that all people are created in the image of God.

They should all be treated with dignity and respect. Senator. Can you commit today to this committee that you will treat, if confirmed, that you would treat every litigant who came before you with respect and with dignity? Absolutely, Senator. I would not have on myself to be nominated for this position if I did not think I could do that. Including members of the LGBT community and any other community that has been historically disadvantaged in this country. Absolutely, center. Now, for years we've heard about the Ninth Circuit being out of touch.

Today, President Trump is close to having 13 judges confirmed for that circuit. How is that going to transform the judiciary? Well, those are actually some of the most important judges because, there's only a few cases actually get picked up by the Supreme Court. The appellate level, the circuit level, those are where a lot of the cases are heard and where a lot of the lasting decisions are made and where a lot of precedent is made. And so by making progress there, the president is really putting a lasting imprint on how the Constitution will be interpreted going forward, and it's going to be interpreted as it was written.

Of course, these confirmations have happened despite obstruction from Senate Democrats. President Trump's nominees have faced more cloture votes, more roll call votes, and greater opposition than any of his predecessors. Tom Jipping of the Heritage Foundation says Trump nominees have faced 18 times the amount of opposition as the judge is appointed by his five predecessors at this point. What does that say to you? Well, I think it's pretty obvious that Democrats are trying to score political points and they're trying to hold up the process as much as possible.

They failed repeatedly, and we're going to continue to push forward. But obviously, this isn't just about qualifications. This is about the fact that they see the president making so much progress and they want to get in the way. You've had a couple of rulings go your way, particularly at the Supreme Court level. I think of when it comes to those who are coming into this country and also some big immigration decisions that have gone your way. How important is it to maintaining the policies that this White House supports and have been carried out through executive actions to have these judges in place? Oh, absolutely. And what we've seen is that the actions this president has taken have been in.

entirely based in law, based on the Constitution, based on the powers given to the president. And more and more, we need judges to uphold that and to see that the Constitution, as written, has been granted to the president these powers. And by having these judges there, we're getting the results that we've been arguing for. And finally, on this topic, Adam, let me ask you because we obviously all saw what happened to Justice Kavanaugh. And we see it to a lesser extent with some of the appellate court nominees and even district court nominees. What is President Trump's message to these judges who want to serve their country and do their civic duty of giving back in this way? To stand strong, to stand by their principles and their beliefs, and to not let the Democrats try and tear them down.

I think what we've seen is that time and time again, the Democrats have tried and failed to take shots at our well-qualified nominees. And time and time again, we've stood by them and stood with them through this process. Okay, well, thank you, Adam. Let's shift gears to impeachment. your reaction to some of the latest developments coming out of Capitol Hill this week and today, obviously, the release of some transcripts. I know that the mainstream national news media attempts to spin it one way, and Democrats certainly have up until this point been selective, it seems, in terms of the news that they've wanted to come out. But I know the White House in certain cases is pointing to these transcripts is showing that in fact there's news and information the American people may not have been privy to that they now are. Well, I think it's pretty clear now why they kept some of these secrets for so long.

It's because there's really not a whole lot there that's supportive of the Democratic case. Just yesterday we saw a transcript from Stalin released, who is the our ambassador to EU. And he clearly states that he does not know why or by whom the aid to Ukraine was held up. And so the idea that he could have knowledge of some quid pro quo, but not know why the aid was held up, seems a little preposterous. At the same time, Volker, who is our actual ambassador on the ground, say that there absolutely was no quid pro quo. any level. So I think it's pretty clear at this point that the Democratic case, whatever it was to begin with, is quickly falling apart. What can you tell our listeners about how the administration is preparing to fight the attacks being mounted by Chairman Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

Well, I think we're going to fight it every step of the way. We're going to point out where the process is wrong, how poorly it's been handled. I mean, this is a process that was started with a podium announcement. I mean, really the first time in history that Congress, really the Democrats in Congress decided to use their exceptional power to try to impeach a president by holding a press conference, not holding a vote. They then went right into secret hearings where no due process was provided. They had a sham vote where the only bipartisan part of it was that it bipartisan opposition to it. And now we're seeing with these transcripts that there is even less there than they were originally saying. The president's been saying this whole time they did nothing

wrong. He released the transcripts showing he did nothing wrong. Yet Democrats are pushing this because they want to overturn 2016 and now try to interfere in 2020. You know, you have a House Speaker who has talked about the importance of it being a bipartisan effort. And, of course, as you referenced, the vote was hardly such. It was two Democrats voting with Republicans against starting the impeachment inquiry. What did it mean to this president to have that unified support among Republicans? Well, I think it's fantastic. And I think the fact that Nancy Pelosi couldn't even keep her party together on this shows that with their cases.

Yeah, Nancy Pelosi repeatedly said she wanted to be a bipartisan effort if she was going to go forward. She went forward anyways, and it was a bipartisan effort against it. So I really think Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff have to take stock of where they're at right now. Well, as you look ahead, there are certainly a number of legislative issues and priorities the president continues to talk about. So as Democrats continue to focus on impeachment, there is other work that needs to get done. One of them is the government funding, and that runs out on November 21st with the U.S. military and need. of reinforcements. We know that this president has made that a priority throughout his tenure. What are the prospects of getting some of that work done in the event of impeachment actually

taking center stage in the U.S. House? We want to work with the Democrats to pass these important measures. And there's other ones as well. They're securing our border. There's lower drug prices. There's USMCA. But time and time again, what we've seen the Democrats really interested in is try to win an impeachment, what they weren't able to win through an election. And that's getting this president out of office. this president will continue to try and work with them. But at the end of the day, it's up to the Democrats if they're willing to put this politics aside and actually get things done for the American people.

You brought up USMCA. We recently heard from Vice President Mike Pence here at the Heritage Foundation about the importance of moving that forward. It seems that there would be the Democrats in favor of it to get this across the finish line. What are the prospects of having something like that come up for a vote here before the end of the year? We're hopeful. We want to take action on it. We've been asking for it. quite some time. We've seen our main trading partners, Mexico and Canada, take more action than

the Democrats in Congress have been willing to, and we'll continue to push them to make sure this gets passed. And despite the fact that President Trump is facing some of these relentless attacks from Capitol Hill, it doesn't seem to be slowing him down. He, of course, made that notable visit to Kentucky this week. As someone who's worked in the White House from the start of this administration, how is he feeling about the state of affairs and how everything is going in terms of executing his agenda? Well, I think he's incredibly happy with his accomplishments. There's still a lot more to get done and we'll continue to push forward. But I think, of course, it's frustrating when Democrats continually try to stand in the way and continually try to divert intention to impeachment.

This president's not going to be distracted, though. He's going to continue to push forward and make sure he gets done for the American people what he promised. You brought up immigration. We saw a situation, a tragic situation in Mexico, the family suffering at the hands of the cartel. What is the president's intention in terms of refocusing the nation on some of the challenges we face there on our southern border and a crime like this? The president has been talking about and warning about the dangers of cartels since his first campaign. He's continued to throughout his presidency. He wants to work with Mexico and he wants to work with other partners to make sure we take a strong stance. What happened was a tragedy, an absolute tragedy, as the president said.

He reached out to the president of Mexico and will continue to offer assistance to support however necessary. Well, Adam, thank you so much for taking the time to visit with the Daily Signal today. We appreciate you giving us an update on these important topics, and we look forward to talking to you again soon. Thanks so much for having me out, and I appreciate it. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. In the Agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research.

The Agenda also provides information. on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. Up next, we'll hear a portion of Carly Fiorina's new interview with Heritage Foundation President Kekles-James. The name of this podcast is by example. And what we do is lift up leaders who, by their example, show the rest of us what leadership is all about. about. One of the things that I say frequently, and I've learned along the way, is that leadership isn't about position or title. You've had a lot of really important positions and titles,

and you hold one now, and we'll come and talk about that and some of your other positions in a moment. But you're a leader, not because of those positions and titles, you're a leader because your entire life, you have changed the order of things for the better. You have all. You have always changed things for the better. And that's why it's such an honor to welcome you to by example today. Well, thank you. And I must admit that in almost every instance in my life, it was not planned. It was not strategic on my part. And when I go back to the very, very beginning, I think it happened. when I was tasked along with a few other young African Americans to integrate the schools in the South, and I think about what was required of me in that moment, you had to be courageous, you had to be fearless, you had to be tenacious.

And I think very early on those characteristics were sort of ingrained in me and have served me well over all these many years. It's such a wonderful reflection you just gave us. I mean, imagine for those listening, imagine you're a young person and you're asked, okay, let's integrate the schools in the South. It's a pretty tall order. I believe that leaders are made not born and that all leaders share certain common characteristics, courage being the first and most important because without courage, none of us can tackle the status quo. And unless we tackle the status quo, things don't get better, do they?

Absolutely. You know, I just went through a sort of challenging moment with Google. Some of your listeners may be aware of that, where I was attacked. and I was by about 2,000 Google employees who felt that I should not serve on this advisory commission. And it was so amusing to me when some friends began to call and say, are you okay? I mean, the things that they're saying about you are horrendous. And it occurred to me that, you know, I've been in that position ever since I was 12 years old when I was called names. as I was walking up the steps to try to integrate a school in the South.

When a junior high school teacher made a very bad jokes when she was reading the menu for the day and said, and for dessert we're having brownies and Lord knows why we're having those. We have enough of them here already. Oh, my goodness. And, you know, being pro-life, being conservative, being repatriable, being repatriative, being repatriable. Republican, being evangelical, being black, all of those things, from the very beginning, you toughen up and you figure out who you are. And so rather than being, looking back at my life and thinking about all the difficulties, I think about what a blessing. What a blessing to have had

all of those experiences to prepare me to be able to stand tall today. So I, you know, I, you know, use that when I talk to young moms sometime, especially helicopter moms, who are extracting from their sons and daughters the very things that they will need to be great leaders and to be successful. They don't want them to hurt. They don't want them to have bad experiences. They don't want them to be disappointed. And all of those things are essential to learn how to stand alone, to learn how to deal with disappointment, I think all of those things are critical, critical for what we find when we step out onto the stage of the big RW, the big real world. Oh, that is so true. You've said so much there, so let's unpack it a little bit at a time.

First, you've said that you are an unexpected package. You're an unexpected collection of things. And so because you're unexpected, you get more stuff thrown at you, right? Absolutely. I mean, I know that from my own experience. Oh, absolutely. And you've also said that social media, I think, is so difficult, so critical, so vitriolic. In a way, it's just poisoning our environment. And it takes a, we make such quick assumptions about people.

Those 2,000 employees at Google, boy, they don't. know what they missed. They don't know what they missed. How foolish of them. Well, my favorite, my favorite out of all the things that they said about me was that I was a white nationalist. Well, there you go. I mean, it's an example, I think, of politics infecting our ability to have a conversation. We've gotten so tribal. It's like, well, if you line up with this tribe, then you must be all those things. It's a terrible thing. I also completely agree with you that it is our difficult times, our painful times, our challenging times, our frightening times that help us figure out who we are and are we going to be able to stand tall and define ourselves

for ourselves. Not let other people tell us who we are, what we're going to do, but decide for ourselves. Absolutely. If you don't mind a biblical reference, when I was going through one of my more difficult challenges. Someone sent me passages from the Bible that had to do with pruning and being a vine. And the analogy that they said was, they don't prune dead vines. They prune live vines. And why does that happen? What happens when you prune, you produce more fruit. So you may be going through a difficult period, but that's only to make you stronger, healthier, vine that will produce way more fruit. So sometimes as parents, especially, we need to remember that when we see our children going through difficult times and we want to rescue them. It's better to walk

beside them as they go through those than rescue them and take them out of those difficult times. It's so true. And it's interesting, you know, we're all afraid of things. And we're all afraid of being criticized, right? We'd much rather have people telling us how awesome we are all the time. And so, but for young people, especially, I think that criticism is so omnipresent in social media. It's like, ooh, I don't want anyone to criticize me. Let me curate my photos. Let me do all these things. And yet, when we can stand up and move on despite the criticism. Well, right. And I think that's what develops us into strong leaders. And, you know, those, to rescue, to take people out of that, to allow them not to have those experiences, I think, is diminishing

the pool of the cadre of people that we have that can lead this great nation or lead great companies or lead great universities. The skill sets that are required are developed as we go through this difficult thing called life. Yes, it's so true. Courage is, I think, first and foremost, as we've been discussing such a critical element of leadership, which is to change the order of things for the better and courage you learn. It's not that you're not afraid. It's that you learn how to get over your fears. The other thing, of course, we're talking about is character, the character, the tenacity, the consistency to get through those tough times with your principles and your soul intact. Tell us about how and when you first developed your

character. You grew up in very difficult circumstances in Richmond. You were given difficult challenges as a young person. Certainly. And you've tackled difficult challenges the whole rest of your life. Where did you find that reserve of character? Well, it came early. It came when I was at home watching a Billy Graham crusade on television. And Billy Graham said that with a personal relationship with Christ, you have the opportunity to be the person that you want to be but feel powerless to become. And I have said that when you live your life according to your principles of your faith, it protects you from so much. As a matter of fact, I've been asked more than once, how in the world did you manage to spend 30 years in Washington and never get indicted for anything?

Because I was taught very early on as a matter of my faith. Don't lie, don't steal, don't sheet, don't do anything immoral, illegal, or unethical. And those very strong precepts that were ingrained in me from the time I was in junior high school and all the way through high school are the very things that kept me safe here in this town, this now called swamp of Washington, D.C. if you have determined that you will not do anything illegal, immoral, or unethical, it will save you from a multitude of problems. And it makes life very easy to navigate if that's the standard that you have.

So it not only is a, you know, a great, you know, standard of faith to have that, but it is also a protection around you. And I have had to resign from jobs when I was asked to do something that was unethical. I have been in situations. I've had Me Too moments where there were lots of opportunities to be immoral. And, you know, on occasion, there have been times when people have asked you to do something that in my mind was absolutely illegal. but when you have a set of standards that you live your life by, it is a protection. It is indeed.

And it is also true that for people listening, the truth is that we are presented with many opportunities. These are my words now, to sell our souls. And in a way, I say to people all the time, in a way, the more successful you become, the more opportunities you have in front of you, the more there are opportunities to sell your soul to give up those principles, to fudge it just a little bit. And so it is easier. It protects you when you're clear about your principles. But it also means that sometimes you disappoint people.

Oh, Carly, that happens to me all the time. And particularly here right now as the president of the Heritage Foundation, it would almost be easier operating in this town if liberals and Democrats were in charge because they would not expect me to do that. But the phone calls that I get from friends on Capitol Hill or friends in the administration that says, I know this may violate one of your principles at Heritage, but would you, but they don't understand, I get 10 of those calls a week. Would you compromise this? And so we have a philosophy here that we will always be true north.

We will figure out what the research, the data, and the analysis tells us. We will figure out what is the correct conservative position on any issue. And then we're going to point in that direction and we can't be lobbied. One of my favorite sayings is the president of the Heritage Foundation cannot be lobbied. I cannot be lobbied to change a position. Once we know, and we have, you know, within this building where we sit, I like to say, are some of the smartest people on the planet. And they do the research, they do the data, they do the analysis, and then sometimes they even have the internal debate to figure out what the correct position ought to be. And so once that process has taken place and the analysts and the researchers have defined what that position is, I can't be lobbied to change that.

So I tell all my friends, I can really save you a lot of angst and phone calls and time to meet. If you think that what you're going to ask me to do violates one of our core principles. It's just not going to happen. Well, and it's so important that that true North exists. The thing about principles is sometimes they're inconvenient. Yes, they are. And, of course, the political dynamic is not the same as principles. I like, you know, George Washington said in 1789, the trouble with political parties, they will come to care only about winning.

Politics is very tribal now. And the dynamic of winning, I win, you lose, is very different sometimes than the dynamic of principled discourse. Absolutely. I had a reporter asked me when I first came to the Heritage Foundation as president, how are you going to navigate this town? And I thought about it for a minute and I said, you know, I'm not. I am not going to navigate this down. That's one of the things that I really enjoy about what I do right now, and that is I don't have to navigate.

I just have to stand. You can listen to the rest of Carly Fiorina's interview with K. Coles James on the By Example podcast, which is available on your favorite podcast app or Carlyfeiorina.com. That'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify, and please leave us a review or rating on iTunes to give us any feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow.

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