President Donald Trump's harassment of judges over his executive order on immigration is hurting his chances of getting Neil Gorsuch, his pick for U.S. Supreme Court, confirmed by Congress, Sen. Chris Coons says.
"President Trump is not responding well to a challenge to his unvetted, I think illegal travel ban that affects seven different majority Muslim countries," Coons, a Delaware Democrat, told CNN on Thursday.
"I think President Trump is going to harm both Judge Gorsuch's chances of confirmation and his standing as president if he continues to undermine the independence of the federal judiciary."
Last weekend, Trump ripped James Robart, a federal jurist in Seattle, Washington, as a "so-called judge" after he issued a stay on the commander in chief's order to keep immigrants and refugees out of the U.S. for safety reasons.
Trump also predicted Robart's "ridiculous" decision will be overturned by the three-member Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is currently deliberating the case.
The Washington Post reports that on Wednesday, the president told a group law enforcement officials:
"If these judges wanted to help the court in terms of respect for the court, they'd do what they should be doing. It's so sad.
"I don't ever want to call a court biased, so I won't call it biased. But courts seem to be so political, and it would be so great for our justice system if they would read [the law] and do what's right."
The Post said the remarks were a bid by Trump to "put his thumb on the scales of justice."
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