Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti said Thursday that President Donald Trump has been "very good" at nominating judges with track records.
"Donald Trump has been very good at nominating judges to the bench who have track records and decisions that people can refer to," Continetti said on Fox News' "Special Report."
Trump and his administration have been successful at getting judges confirmed to various federal courts. The Washington Post reported this week that Trump has been able to fill vacancies for influential circuit-court judgeships at a faster pace than his recent predecessors. Twenty-six of Trump's picks for openings on the U.S. Court of Appeals have been confirmed, and the president has also had numerous district-court judges confirmed.
Trump's success with the judiciary includes the Supreme Court, to which he successfully nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch last year to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia. His second nominee for the high court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, is currently going through the confirmation process and appears poised to be confirmed with a Republican majority in the Senate.
Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee began on Tuesday. Democrats immediately interrupted the committee chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), to begin the proceedings. They urged the committee to adjourn because the White House released additional documents pertaining to Kavanaugh's time as a lawyer in the George W. Bush administration the prior night; Democrats argued they did not have enough time to review the documents, adding that not all documents have been released.
"What I think we are seeing with Judge Kavanaugh's testimony is the upside and the downside to [Trump nominating judges with track records]," Continetti said. "The downside is you have emails from 15 years ago that become the hot topic debate where we try to read into them with different motives. He has been relatively good at batting back those accusations."
"The upside is we have a pretty good idea, a very good idea of how he would rule once he is on the Supreme Court. And that is as an originalist and a constitutionalist," Continetti added.