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(CNN) – US President Donald Trump claimed a place in history on Monday when the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett secured a dominant conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, but the pomp of his victory lap could not hide the reality. of a pandemic that has put his presidency in grave danger. week before the elections.
A brilliant ceremony on a crisp fall night at the White House had deep political overtones that will only exacerbate the fury of Democrats who feel the Republican maneuvers stole two Supreme Court seats. It will also inexorably drag the court into a toxic political battle that has already tainted its reputation for nonpartisanship.
The event was held despite another Covid-19 hotspot at the White House, this time with the staff of Vice President Mike Pence. He framed Trump, smiling, alongside a new judge indebted to him for a lifetime appointment after the president warned he could contest an election he already declared unfair in the Supreme Court.
Next week or so he will say whether the White House party was a moment of farewell glory for a president heading to the desert or heralds a much bigger celebration for a second term in the White House next week.
The ceremony took place at the end of a day in which Trump swept Pennsylvania, the key state that could be the deciding factor in the event of a close election in which he is currently trailing Democrat Joe Biden on the electoral map. He only mentioned the pandemic to mislead the country about the rapidly worsening emergency that has killed 225,000 Americans, as hospitals fill up and many states flag their highest number of new cases. He hopes his pageantry alongside Barrett on Monday night will motivate conservatives and elicit large grassroots turnout, though it could also provide more moderate voters, especially women, another reason to reject him.
Barrett was previously confirmed in a 52-48 vote in the Republican-led Senate. His rise to the top bank, solidifying a conservative 6-3 majority, spells a major reshaping of Washington’s power tectonics just a week before an election in which Republicans risk being excluded from power in the executive branches. and government legislative.
A true moment of legacy
Trump’s third appointment to the Supreme Court marked one of the most triumphant moments of his presidency, but it was also the culmination of a decades-long struggle for a clear majority of the Conservative movement that spanned multiple presidencies.
And unsurprisingly, Trump put on a show, with huge American flags prominent and hanging from the south porch of the White House.
But their reunion evoked painful memories of the previous event celebrating Barrett in September at the White House who became a Covid-19 super-spreader. This time, the chairs were spaced out on the lawn and most of the guests wore masks.
But the fact that five people in Pence’s orbit recently tested positive for COVID-19 led health experts to disapprove of another event in which Trump prioritized his own personal political aspirations over public health.
Pence, who had previously hoped to preside over the Senate at the time Barrett was confirmed, did not appear either on camera or at the White House celebration. However, the vice president refuses to self-quarantine, arguing that his job – not chairing the near-dormant coronavirus task force, but campaigning – is essential and similar to what front-line health workers do. But the fact that even the Trump White House admitted that social distancing was necessary symbolizes how the chosen message from the end of the campaign has been completely dampened by the deteriorating public health situation.
The new balance of power in the court brings significant implications for civil, racial, corporate, reproductive and voting rights laws and for future Democratic presidents and legislators to use future electoral terms to advance their progressive priorities.
But Barrett insisted after he was sworn in before the court’s conservative bloc dean, Judge Clarence Thomas, that he would be politically impartial despite the highly partisan nature of Trump’s celebration.
“It is the job of a senator to pursue her political preferences. In fact, it would be negligent in the line of duty to set aside her political goals,” Barrett said. “On the contrary, it is the job of a judge to resist her political preferences. It would be negligent for her to give in to them.”
In a political sense, the event also helps explain Trump’s own presidency. The deal between ideological, social and Christian conservatives with a barely pious president has paid off for both parties. The outcome of next week’s election will decide whether the move will bolster Trump’s coalition and boost his grassroots participation enough for him to forge a backward victory over Biden. Even if Trump loses, Conservatives will likely accumulate years of courage by being with Trump and can thank Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for crafting the clear majority, in part by refusing to confirm then-President Barack Obama’s nominee. , Merrick Garland, in an election year.
Barrett’s new place at the nation’s largest bank could also be very significant in the near term.
In his first weeks in court, Barrett will hear cases about the fate of Obamacare, abortion, and Trump’s taxes, as well as possible disputes arising from the 2020 election. All of these cases are of great interest to the president and his future. political. Therefore, his decision to participate in a highly political event after accepting a life appointment just days before an election that Trump has already ruled unfair will raise further questions about his ability to consider cases independently. The ire of Democrats is fueling calls for Biden and Senate Democrats to increase the size of the Supreme Court bench if they take power.
A battle for Pennsylvania
Both Biden and Trump came out on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania on Monday, underscoring how the Commonwealth could end up being the decisive state in a head-to-head election. The president held three large crowds, not socially distanced, despite breaking news about three groups of infections linked to demonstrations that he held in Minnesota in September.
The president reacted sharply when asked by reporters about Biden’s claim that he had flown the white flag on the pandemic after his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told Jake Tapper on the “State of the Union” show on CNN on Sunday that the virus cannot be contained.
“He has flown the white flag in his life. He does not come out of his basement, he is a pathetic candidate,” said the president.
Biden visited Delaware County, a Democratic stronghold in the state of Keystone. He reacted angrily to Trump’s claim over the weekend that doctors had been inflating the number of Covid-19 cases to win more funding for their hospitals.
“What the hell is wrong with this man?” Biden asked, adding that more than 1,000 frontline healthcare workers have died from the coronavirus.
The candidates’ travel plans in the coming days reflect the reality of an election in which the president is defending territories across the map and must win a long list of undecided states to have a route to 270 electoral votes.
Biden’s plans include stops in Iowa and Georgia. Peach’s state has not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1992. He said he will also visit soon Wisconsin, a state that Trump won four years ago and now leans Democratic, and the eternal state of Florida. . . Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris will visit Texas this week, a state that is leaning red but where Democrats hope to make an impact.
The president will be in Michigan and Wisconsin on Tuesday, two states that formed the base of the Midwest for his victory in the 2016 election but where he lags significantly behind Biden in the polls. He is also heading to Nebraska to fight for the single Electoral College vote in the state’s second congressional district that Biden has a chance to win.
The Trump campaign on Monday insisted that polls showing the president lagging almost everywhere did not mean much and claimed a strong position in the key states that will decide the elections.
Campaign manager Bill Stepien said the president had multiple avenues to garner 270 electoral votes and said his ground game would sink Democrats who have knocked on doors far less amid the pandemic. Stepien said the president was “expanding his base and getting new voters.”
Yet a glance at the electoral map shows the difficult task facing the president in repeating his narrow victory over Hillary Clinton. You need to round up nearly every competitive state, including Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and North Carolina, before holding onto Pennsylvania, where Biden is ahead and potentially winning one from Arizona, Michigan, or Wisconsin, which are currently leaning toward the former vice president. .
In a normal election, both candidates at this point would simply be trying to increase their grassroots turnout with a few days to go, especially since in 2020, polls show few undecided voters left.
This year, the prospect of a last-minute shift in electoral dynamics is even more troubling than usual, as more than 60 million Americans have already voted early. Some 33 states have exceeded their vote totals leading up to the 2016 election, and the numbers suggest that overall high turnout is likely.
This story was first published on CNN.com “Trump takes the Supreme Court victory lap while misleading the nation for worsening pandemic”
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