Trump Accidentally Helps Dems Get Key Judicial Nominees Approved by Taking Republicans to Watch SpaceX Launch

As Republicans have been trying to drag down the process of getting Joe Biden's judicial nominees approved, Republican senators expressed that Donald Trump was hurting their progress by taking some congress members to watch the SpaceX launch, causing them to miss votes.

Sen. JD Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio were among some of the senators who missed the opportunity to cast their votes yesterday, leading to fellow Republicans to express their frustrations. Other senators were also reportedly absent the day prior, as reported by Punchbowl News and shared to X.

The anger comes after a number of Democrats were absent as well, meaning that if the Republican senators had been there, they likely would have been able to defeat the judicial nominations.

Democrats have been trying to push through Biden's judicial nominees before he leaves office in a few weeks. Trump previously told Republican senators to "hold the line" to prevent as many upper chamber flips as possible, as reported by CBS News.

With 44 vacancies and 14 current nominees, Democrats are trying to meet or exceed the number of judicial nominees that were confirmed during the Trump administration. During his first term, 234 Trump nominees were confirmed, while so far 217 Biden nominees have been confirmed.

The final push for Democrats is not a new play. Republicans did the same thing following the 2020 election, confirming 19 judicial nominees before Biden took office.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that Democrats "will keep working to confirm as many of President Biden's judicial nominees as we can before the end of the year," as reported by The Hill.