Trump Presses Senate to Confirm 161 Nominees Before Democrats Take Over, Names Three More Judges

President Donald Trump is pressing the lame-duck Republican Senate to confirm all 161 of his pending nominees before Democrats take control in January, and on Tuesday he added three more federal judicial picks to the list.

“Very important for the US Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, Business Standard reported.

Tuesday’s picks were Grayson Lambert for the District of South Carolina, Elliot Gaiser for the Northern District of Texas and James Sullivan for the Western District of Texas, Just the News reported. Trump announced them in separate posts as Senate Republicans met to plan the lame-duck session.

Gaiser is assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and a former Ohio solicitor general who clerked for Justice Samuel Alito. “Texas will appreciate having such a talented and intelligent Judge on their Federal Bench,” Trump wrote.

His nomination could leave the department with another key vacancy amid a wave of departures after the midterms, including the resignations of three division leaders at headquarters, the Associated Press reported. Under Gaiser, the office weighed in on issues from gun rights to the operation that removed Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

The White House also announced late Monday that it picked Matt Zandi, chief of staff of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, for a seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Associated Press reported.

Zandi would fill the seat once held by Jocelyn Samuels, one of two Democratic commissioners Trump fired before their terms ended. If confirmed, he would serve a five-year term ending July 1, 2031, joining Republican Chair Andrea Lucas and Commissioner Brittany Panuccio.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, objected at a Tuesday committee hearing. “This would be the third Republican commissioner in a row without a pairing, an overtly partisan decision of the administration,” she said.

Republicans praised the agency’s direction. “Under this administration, EEOC has sharpened its focus on even-handed enforcement of employment discrimination laws,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican.

The calendar is the problem. The new judicial posts are in states that broke for Democrats this cycle, and because Senate Republicans kept the “blue slip” custom, filling them will need a Democratic senator’s support for the next six years, Just the News noted.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has urged Republicans to stay in Washington through Thanksgiving and Christmas, working weekends and overnight if needed, to confirm as many nominees as possible, especially judges with lifetime appointments, Florida’s Voice reported.

Leading Democratic senators have vowed not to confirm any of Trump’s EEOC nominees once they hold the majority, in protest of the firings, which they say stripped the commission of its independence and bipartisan balance.

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