Post by trueblue on Aug 18, 2022 2:36:29 GMT
'How Joe Biden's deal with Mitch McConnell to seat an anti-abortion judge in Kentucky crashed and burned'
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The timing couldn't have been worse.
America was holding its breath for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it would strike down the constitutional right to an abortion — an outcome that seemed preordained after a leaked draft opinion in May.
But President Joe Biden was ready to make a deal — or what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would later call “a personal friendship gesture.”
Dragged down by dismal approval ratings and facing midterms elections that seemed destined to hand Republicans control of Congress, Biden agreed to nominate the senator's choice for federal district judge in Kentucky — a candidate the Republican leader had been trying to get on the bench since 2020.
America was holding its breath for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it would strike down the constitutional right to an abortion — an outcome that seemed preordained after a leaked draft opinion in May.
But President Joe Biden was ready to make a deal — or what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would later call “a personal friendship gesture.”
Dragged down by dismal approval ratings and facing midterms elections that seemed destined to hand Republicans control of Congress, Biden agreed to nominate the senator's choice for federal district judge in Kentucky — a candidate the Republican leader had been trying to get on the bench since 2020.