The White House said Wednesdsay that it doubts any of the 11 judges Donald Trump has included on a list of potential Supreme Court nominees is a “consensus candidate” that could attract bipartisan support.
Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest declined to weigh in on any one member of the list Trump released, but said he doubted that Democrats would describe any of the candidates on the list as “consensus candidates” the way Republicans have described President Obama’s selection, Merrick Garland.
“I think that speaks to the wisdom of the Senate acting on the president’s nomination, and I think that speaks to the president’s commitment to fulfilling his constitutional responsibilities to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court in a way that is consistent with his desires to protect the Supreme Court from the kind of partisan wars that it has been subjected to,” Earnest said.
Earnest also declined to say what impact a Trump selection would have on the direction of the high court.
“I’ll leave that to others to speculate,” he said.
Trump released the list Wednesday afternoon in the middle of Earnest’s daily briefing with reporters.
