"No excuse": Trump fumes on Truth Social after Senate confirms Biden judges — thanks to GOP absences

Republican senators are urging some of their colleagues, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Donald Trump's Secretary of State pick Marco Rubio, R-Florida, to get back to the office and block Democrats from confirming judges during the lame-duck session while they still have the majority and the White House. “Particularly on some of the circuit court judges.” Related Amid Sotomayor fears, Senate Dems face “road blocks” to approve judges before Trump takes office Trump himself issued marching orders on Truth Social on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal editorial board did not accept Vance's excuse, writing that while he was “on the job that begins in January, which is two months away,” his neglect of his current job allowed Biden to get his nominees "a lifetime appointment to the federal bench because Republicans couldn’t get their full team on the field.” We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism At the time of the Nov. 5 election, there were 47 vacancies on the federal bench, with 17 nominees awaiting confirmation. “I would implore our leadership to go to the important issues the American people are thinking about: that’s completing our work at the end of the year and moving into next year.” Her and Trump's gripes over lame duck nominations are a reversal of the late 2020 dynamic, in which the GOP first defied precedent to confirm 23 of Trump's judicial nominees even after Biden had won and Democrats were projected to control the Senate following two December runoff victories in Georgia. “If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over and allow him to quickly confirm multiple Biden-appointed judges to lifetime jobs in the final weeks of the Democrat majority, he thought wrong,” Thune told ABC News.