10:30 p.m. ET, June 20, 2020
Trump tells rally "we could get a few more" Supreme Court openings
From CNN's Lauren Koenig and Eric Bradner
President Trump Saturday night, after touting the nomination and approval of his two Supreme Court nominees, said he might get the chance to pick more.
“So we have two justices of the Supreme Court, Justice (Neil) Gorsuch, Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh. They’re great. They are, They’re great. We have two and we could get a few more!” Trump said, which was then met with cheers.
He also repeated his pledge, first made earlier this week, to soon announce a list of contenders if he has another opportunity to make a nomination to the nation’s High Court if there is a vacancy.
“I’ll be soon announcing a new list of exceptional candidates for the United States Supreme Court, and I will choose only from that list, 100%. Probably 25 incredible people – any one of which could be a great justice,” he told his re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “I did it last time, and people loved when I did it. And I will only pick from that list.”
Earlier this week he said he would release the list by Sept. 1.
Some background: Trump, in the wake of
two stinging losses at the Supreme Court, is returning to his 2016 campaign tactic of trying to rally Republicans with promises of conservative justices.
This time, though, Democrats argue that public sentiment on issues like immigration and LGBTQ rights has shifted so much that Trump's strategy could backfire, potentially alienating suburban moderates and helping former Vice President
Joe Biden and down-ballot Democrats appeal to first-time voters.
Supreme Court and judicial appointments were elevated in the 2020 presidential race this week after the nation's high court dealt Trump's administration two major blows.
The court on Thursday
blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation. The ruling, in a 5-4 opinion written by
Chief Justice John Roberts, came three days after a 6-3 opinion backed by a Trump appointee,
Neil Gorsuch, in which the court said LGBTQ Americans are protected under the Civil Rights Act.
Trump reacted to the rulings with a string of tweets, saying on Thursday they were a "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives."