Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch apparently further criticized President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judiciary in a meeting with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE).
Sasse said on “Morning Joe” on Thursday that Gorsuch told him that any attack on “brothers or sisters of the robe” is an attack on all judges.
A day earlier, Gorsuch made news in another meeting, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), for saying Trump’s attacks on Judge James Robart were “disheartening” and “demoralizing.” Robart put a nationwide temporary hold on Trump’s immigration order. Trump responded by calling Robart a “so-called judge.”
“Disheartening is a great word,” Sasse said of Trump’s criticism. “Judge Gorsuch and I actually talked about that, and frankly he got pretty passionate about it. I asked him about the ‘so-called judges’ comment, because we don’t have so-called judges or so-called presidents or so-called senators, and this is a guy who kind of welled up with some energy and he said any attack on any of — I think his term to me was ‘brothers or sisters of the robe’ is an attack on all judges, and he believes in an independent judiciary.”
“And I think what I saw in that guy was he got some energy about it, was this isn’t about somebody who’s just been nominated to Supreme Court,” Sasse continued. “This is a guy who if he were on traffic court in Colorado, or in Nebraska, would have the same view.”
Sasse said that Gorsuch’s comments and understanding of the separation of powers are reason to support his nomination for the high court.
On Thursday, Trump attacked Blumenthal on Twitter—“now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?”—seemingly in response to Blumenthal going public with Gorsuch’s statements.
.@SenSasse says Gorsuch told him: Any attack on brothers or sisters of the robe is an attack on all judges https://t.co/vGqx4aGdb6
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) February 9, 2017
