On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer gave one of the more unusual press conferences that you’ll see from the James A. Brady Press Room in the White House. Most of the attention is focused on his remarks about alleged voter fraud, but Spicer also addressed Trump’s upcoming Supreme Court pick.
Specifically, Spicer answered whether President Trump would push the Senate to end the filibuster entirely, as former Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid paved the way for during his tenure.
In response to the question, Spicer seemed to suggest that Trump had no plans to push Republicans to extend the Democrats anti-filibuster rule to cover Supreme Court nominees.
“Well, I think he is going to appoint a quality associate justice that hopefully will achieve overwhelming support,” Spicer said, somewhat sidestepping the question. “His goal . . . is to choose someone who hopefully everybody recognizes is a jurist that is going to adhere to the Constitution and not legislate from the bench.”
Spicer was then asked a follow up question — though it was more of a suggestion — that given he had already expressed concern at the nomination process thus far, might he consider recommending to Trump that he should push Republicans to do away with filibusters for SCOTUS appointments.
This time Spicer flat out dodged the question and reminded the reporters that Trump planned to meet with a bipartisan group of leaders to listen to their concerns regarding potential appointees.
[image via screengrab]
