Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a fiery speech on July 17, blasting former President Donald Trump’s latest judicial nominees as “radical, inexperienced” individuals selected solely for their loyalty to him—not for their qualifications or commitment to the law.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer denounced the nominations of Joshua Divine and Cristian Stevens, both from Missouri, as part of what he called a disturbing pattern.
“When choosing his judges, one thing matters to Donald Trump: unquestioned fealty to him,” Schumer said. “It doesn’t matter what the law is. It doesn’t matter about judicial independence, or precedent, or even the Constitution.”
Schumer criticized Divine, labeling him a “political operative” with no judicial experience. He noted that Divine has been out of law school for less than a decade and has spent fewer than five years practicing law. “He made a career attacking everything from voting rights, to commonsense gun safety, to defending government overreach into people’s private lives,” Schumer said.
Turning to Stevens, Schumer said the nominee had consistently “undermined racial justice efforts in our judicial system” and sided with corporations in discrimination cases. “If the average American has the ability to go to court and fight their boss or anything else, Donald Trump wants nominees who will always side with the big shots and with the well-connected,” he said.
Schumer warned that these nominees pose a direct threat to judicial independence. “Nominees like Mr. Divine and Mr. Stevens should frighten anyone who cares about a strong, independent judiciary,” he said. “They have failed to show the American people that they won’t just be Donald Trump’s foot soldiers in black robes.”
He urged the Senate to reject their confirmations.
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