Cruz challenges Dems to 'stand up to the White House' against 'radical,' 'wildly unqualified' judicial picks

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, delivered a blistering tirade during Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, railing against a batch of more than two dozen of President Biden's judicial nominees and asking Democrats to do something about it.

Cruz accused the administration of trying to "flood the zone with so many bad nominees" so that Republicans could not focus too much on every one of them. Cruz picked out a few, including Nancy G. Abudu, who served as deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that published an article accusing Republicans on the committee of having "open white supremacist views." 

He also mentioned Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, who once said the law should be used "as a tool of social justice," and Kenly Kiya Kato, who would not say racial discrimination is wrong when Cruz asked her about it at her confirmation hearing.

Cruz then mentioned Dale Ho, who once wrote about how he is motivated by "hate" for conservatives. The senator also brought up another nominee, who was not up for a vote at Thursday's meeting. 

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That was Charnelle Bjelkengren, who Cruz said was "wildly unqualified," recalling how Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., had asked her what Article V and Article II of the Constitution were, and she did not know either one.

"I would ask this committee, is there anyone — if the White House nominates a ham sandwich, are the Democrats prepared to rubber stamp Judge Ham Sandwich?" Cruz asked.

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Cruz noted that every Democrat had voted in favor of every Biden judicial nominee, contrasting this with how, during the Trump administration, there were times when Republicans pushed back against judicial picks, resulting in nominations being withdrawn.

"I just want to close with this, which is urging my colleagues to be willing to stand up to the White House," Cruz said. "I'm confident that many, if not most of you, actually care about having a qualified judiciary."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of Samantha Power to be the next administrator of the United States Agency for International Development March 23, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington.  (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)

"My call — and sadly, I say this call with absolute certainty it will be unheeded — is for one Democrat senator to muster the gumption to say for one of these radical nominees, 'No, we're not going to vote to confirm a ham sandwich,'" Cruz said.

The Texas Republican warned that by going along with whomever a president nominates senators are eroding their own authority in determining who gets to serve on the federal bench.

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"The only thing that will stop it will be if any Democrat senators are willing to insist on the barest modicum of standards and to do our jobs, and I hope and pray we do that," Cruz said.

Later in the hearing, the committee voted to advance Abudu, Choudhury, Kato and Ho.