Twenty-four hours seems to be the expiration time for Trump promises now that he's the GOP nominee, and his much balleyhooed conservative SCOTUS short-list is no different.
Actually, I take that back; this walk-back is different - because it only took about five hours:
Transcript of the @seanhannity Trump interview airing tonight!
Make sure you're seated before you read!
Notice how Hannity (Trump's version of Josh Ernest, guaranteed, if and when) lets Trump skip right over any elucidation of what constitutional originalism actually means? I'd have appreciated a follow-up question drilling down a little bit more on that. Even a question asking him how many Articles and how many Amendments there are would have been helpful as some sort of gauge of whether he actually gives a damn about it. Why should we take that "correct, correct" at face value when there is ZERO evidence for it from anything he has ever said, written, or tweeted prior to this campaign?
Because it's difficult to believe he gives a damn about constitutional originalism just by the way he speaks about it here. It's like he's going down his mental "conservative buzz word" roladex: "Am I a constitutionalist? 'Correct, correct'. And I've gotta mention 'high intellect,' so I'll insert that three times in the same sentence. But, crap, that's right, liberal justices have 'great intellects,' too - what do I say now? Oh, yeah, 'uh, they're pro life'. Whew, almost skidded into the ditch on that one. Good thing I've got this toady in front of me to help cover my ass."
And then, because Trump gotta be Trump, he skids into the ditch. The money quote:
So that's my list. And we are going to choose from, most likely, this list. But, uh, at a minimum, we will keep people within this general realm. [emphases added]
Just like his buddy Bill Clinton, Trump never wants to let himself get tied down to an ironclad promise. Like every pathological liar, he has to have the wriggle room. Trump's problem is that, unlike his buddy Bill Clinton, he doesn't have the mental discipline, or wattage, to not make the ironclad promises first before he immediately starts walking them back. I mean, why issue the damn list yesterday if he isn't really committed to stick to it? "Here's my SCOTUS nominee short list. Will I stick to it, if and when? Eh, maybe, maybe not. Depends on how I'm feeling on any given day. Who knows?" And this is supposed to reassure true conservatives? Does he not get that he's got to do a lot more to win us over than just the same BS con that worked on his drooling cultists? I don't think he does, and even if he did, he'd be too lazy to bother with it. Which is why he'll never win us over.
One of the names on Trump's listicle is a Texas Supreme Court Justice whom a cursory vetting of his Twitter feed would quite clearly indicate that he is not a Trumplican:
Donald Trump haiku—
Who would the Donald
Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels.
*weeps—can't finish tweet* pic.twitter.com/a326AP0mN1
Who would the Donald
Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels.
*weeps—can't finish tweet* pic.twitter.com/a326AP0mN1
He's got quite a few good ones on his feed:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all . . . except for all the losers, clowns, and dummies."
—President Donald Lincoln
This one tops the, er, list, though:
"We'll rebuild the Death Star. It'll be amazing, believe me. And the rebels will pay for it."
I know, I know, "If President Trump actually nominated Willett, it'd be different, and he couldn't say no." Mayhap he would, mayhap he wouldn't. But I kinda think he's taking himself out of the running with these tweets - amirite?
The other ten names on the listicle may as well also, because the only potential SCOTUS nominee about whom Trump has ever been credibly enthusiastic is his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, the radical pro-abortion extremist death-cultist. And whether or not he was sincere in saying that "we will have to rule that out now, at least" - don't count on it, folks - she is far more likely to be the kind of federal judge, including the SCOTUS, that a President Trump would nominate.
Just like this person.
Buzzards of a feather, and all that.
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