'Clock is ticking to change hearts': Trump presses GOP holdouts on 'favorite' prosecutor
President Donald Trump is scrambling to whip the votes in the Senate from reluctant members of his own party to confirm his pick for federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, CNN reporter Paula Reid told anchor Erin Burnett on Monday evening.
Martin, a far-right activist from Missouri who had no prosecutorial experience prior to his appointment to the U.S. attorney's office on an acting basis, has repeatedly come under fire for his erratic and ethically dubious behavior, including trying to dismiss cases he previously acted as defense counsel on, and threatening inappropriate criminal investigations of entities ranging from Wikipedia to the American College of Chest Physicians. He has even had to apologize for praising a Nazi sympathizer.
"I mean, Paula, the president getting personally involved here, what more are you learning?" asked Burnett.
"Well, Erin, this isn't just any nominee," said Reid. "This is Trump's favorite U.S. attorney nominee, I am told by a source. And this resistance is, of course, coming from his own party, which is why the president is having to get on the phone to try to get this across the line.
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"Among those lawmakers with some reservations, North Carolina lawmaker Thom Tillis has serious questions, he says, about Martin's nomination, specifically as it relates to comments Martin made about police who defended the Capitol on January 6th," she continued. 'We've also learned that Senators [John] Cornyn and [Ted] Cruz have privately expressed concerns about this controversial nominee. But a White House official tells me the White House continues to be confident that Martin will be confirmed, despite his many controversies that I know you have covered extensively on the show, including his failure to disclose nearly 200 media appearances in his official paperwork, as well as claiming he did not recall some of his most controversial statements."
"Now the clock is ticking for him to convert hearts and minds about his confirmation," Reid noted. "He has to be confirmed by May 20th because he is an interim right now. If they aren't able to do that, then they'll have to pursue a different process. And one option, Erin, is for Judge James Boasberg, an Obama-appointed judge who has drawn the ire of President Trump and his allies for some decisions he has made opposing Trump policies — he could potentially pick the next U.S. attorney in D.C."
Shortly after this report, Trump took to Truth Social to make a public push for Martin's confirmation.
"We are going to take our Country BACK, and FAST. Ed Martin will be a big player in doing so and, I hope, that the Republican Senators will make a commitment to his approval, which is now before them," he wrote. "Ed is coming up on the deadline for Voting and, if approved, HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN."
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