A new report from Demand Justice revealed Tuesday that dozens of President Donald Trump-nominated judges had used "nearly identical” language in an attempt to dodge questions on the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and the results of the 2020 election, with the group's president labeling the findings as a “political loyalty test.”
In the exclusive report, Demand Justice analyzed the responses of 27 of Trump’s nominees to questions from lawmaker that are frequently submitted to nominees after their hearings. All 27 were asked bluntly if Trump lost the 2020 election, as well as whether they would describe the Jan. 6 riot as an attack by a “violent mob.”
“When we looked into these answers, we expected some sort of a dodge, but what we revealed was even more disturbing,” said Demand Justice President Josh Orton, speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday. Host Jonathan Lemire called Orton's report 'exclusive new findings."
“All of the language here is nearly identical! And all of it preserves their ability to say [they] did not contradict Donald Trump on what we know are the two most third-rail issues to Donald Trump,” Orton said.
What Demand Justice found was that the answers to both questions across the 27 nominees were “strikingly uniform,” using similar language to avoid acknowledging both Trump’s loss in the 2020 election or that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a “violent” attack.
The report revealed that 21 of the 27 nominees had characterized the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as a political issue, and used similar phrases such as “political controversy" or “political issue.” The report also found that not a single nominee acknowledged that Trump lost the 2020 election.
“So what's the totality here? If nominees to federal courts don't answer these two questions, I think it amounts to, essentially, a political loyalty test,” Orton said.
“You cannot exist in the Trump administration as a U.S. attorney, a cabinet member, as a staffer if you say the wrong thing, if you say he lost the 2020 election or that there was a riot at the Capitol. He's now, essentially, asking for a loyalty test for all these judges; they used to be loyal to the Constitution. Now, Donald Trump is demanding that they're loyal to him.”
