WASHINGTON ― Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday unilaterally forced a change in Senate rules to make it easier to confirm most of President Donald Trump’s nominees to lifetime court seats. The change does not apply to Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court nominees or circuit court nominees. Ahead of the vote, McConnell and other Republicans complained about Democrats delaying votes on Trump’s nominees and said it justified changing the rules ― the same rules they abused to deny Barack Obama votes on his judicial nominees for most of his presidency. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chaired the Judiciary Committee when Obama was president, downplayed the number of times Republicans denied votes to his court picks. “One Supreme Court judge and two circuit judges,” said Grassley, who apparently does not remember that Trump inherited more than 100 court vacancies when he became president because of all the judicial nominees Republicans blocked under Obama.

Source: Huffington Post April 03, 2019 21:00 UTC