President Donald Trump raged Sunday night at GOP senators who defended a legal rule preventing the confirmation of his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
Trump directed his anger at Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., both of whom defended the “blue slip” rule, which allows the senators representing the home state of a judicial nominee to block that pick. Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey used that rule to prevent Habba from being confirmed by the Senate.
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to rant about both the rule and Grassley.
“I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” the president wrote, calling the blue slip rule “old and outdated…that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn.”
“Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles,” Trump added, “and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to HELL!”
Habba said that Trump is “entitled to pick his U.S. attorneys,” and criticized the blue slip rule when speaking on Fox News.
‘This tradition that Senator Grassley is upholding effectively prevents anybody in a blue state from going through into the Senate to then be voted on,” Habba said.
Meanwhile, Grassley defended his stance on the rule in a post on X.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of [committee]…As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE,” Grassley wrote.
A judge ruled last Thursday that Habba was “unlawfully” serving as the state’s prosecutor, since she was only in an acting capacity.
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