When James Comey announced
that the FBI was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails a
week before the 2016 election Donald Trump famously said “It would be ‘virtually impossible’ for a President
of the United States to ‘govern or lead’ if they were under an FBI
investigation.” For once I agree with
Trump. Last Monday James Comey confirmed the rumors that there has been an
ongoing investigation since last summer into ties between the Trump Campaign
and the Russian government to influence the election. This is a far more
serious charge than using a private email server and calls into question every
policy Trump attempts to put in place as possibly trying to return the favor to
Russia for getting him elected.
There has been a vacancy on the Supreme Court for over a
year since Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016. Republicans refused
to even meet with Obama’s appointee, Merrick Garland. Now that they control both
houses of Congress as well as the White House they seem to want to rush Trump’s
pick through conformation as soon as possible. Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer is having none of it. He has
proposed delaying a vote on Neil Gorsuch as long as Trump remains under
investigation by the FBI. As the FBI investigation picks up speed along with
separate Hose and Senate intelligence committee investigations as well as daily
revelations from the media, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Trump is
unlikely to remain in office through the summer. This begs the question; if
Obama wasn’t allowed to fill a seat on the Supreme Court in his final year, why
should Trump?
I agree with Keith’s declaration that President Trump should not be able to appoint a Supreme Court Justice prior to the conclusion of the investigation against him, regardless if the outcome is in his favor. The accusations that have prompted this investigation in the first place are so deceitful to the American public that they should not be rewarded with important executive powers. That being said, I don’t think it makes any difference when or who gets appointed to the Supreme Court because it will be the decision of the GOP just the same. Trump is nothing more than a puppet to his administration, and with or without him their agenda will become the law of the land.
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