Congress

Senate confirms Emil Bove to Third Circuit, as Dems fail to thwart Trump pick

Published

1 year ago

July 30, 2025

Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, has been confirmed to a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — the culmination of a tumultuous campaign from his detractors that ultimately fractured his support among the Senate GOP.

The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Bove, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defecting from the rest of their party to join all Democrats in opposing.

Bove was plagued by reports of whistleblowers alleging that he recommended the administration ignore court orders that would disrupt Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. His nomination became a flashpoint battle for Democrats, who argued the current principal associate deputy attorney general had made clear he valued fealty to the president over the law and was therefore unfit for the federal bench.

“Look at his record: Emil Bove has shown time and time again his disrespect for the very office he seeks to hold,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), pointing to the whistleblower’s allegations, during a recent speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t know of another case I have seen in my 14 years in the Senate where someone so unqualified for the bench is before us.”

Booker was among Bove’s chief antagonists, with New Jersey being among the states from where the newly-confirmed judge would hear appeals — along with Delaware, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.

Trump has long taken pride in his selections for the federal judiciary, of which there were hundreds during his first term, and he has also indicated he expects from his judges, in turn, a degree of loyalty. That pressure has only become more acute during Trump’s second term, as he has taken to targeting federal judges who have presented obstacles to his administration’s agenda.

In plenty of ways, Bove fits the mold of Trump judicial nominees. But Bove’s allegiance to Trump goes deeper than those of Trump’s previous judicial picks. Before joining the DOJ as a top agency official, Bove represented Trump in criminal probes around the retention of classified documents and efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

The cases were ultimately dismissed after Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, and not long after, some of his onetime attorneys, including Bove, joined the upper ranks of his administration. Todd Blanche, who worked with Bove on those cases, is now deputy attorney general.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a brief interview last week he had urged his Democratic colleagues to make the case, as a party on the Senate floor, to the American people that Bove was unfit for the lifetime appointment due to his record and his loyalty to Trump.

“Essentially, it’s loyalty to Donald Trump … despite all of these utterly sickening failing[s],” Blumenthal said.

Democrats devoted significant time and resources to fighting the Bove nomination, from floor speeches to remarks at their weekly press conference led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

They pointed to Bove’s role in the dismissal of federal corruption charges against Eric Adams — a move that prompted questions over whether the Democratic mayor of New York City had engaged in a quid pro quo to have the case dropped in exchange for cooperating with federal immigration enforcement officials at the Rikers jail facility. Democrats also decried Bove’s role in the dismissal of prosecutors who worked on cases in the Biden administration tied to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Judiciary Committee Democrats also staged a protest, walking out of the committee markup to advance the Bove nomination when committee chair Chuck Grassley said he would pause proceedings rather than allow members of the minority party to continue airing their grievances. At one point, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) shouted that the committee had devolved into a “kangaroo court.”

Three whistleblowers also came forward over the course of Bove’s confirmation process to lodge allegations against the nominee. Erez Reuveni, a former Justice Department official who worked with Bove, detailed Bove’s recommendation to defy the immigration court orders. Democrats sought to hold a hearing where Reuveni could testify under oath. Grassley declined the request, and doubled down on the Senate floor Tuesday against insinuations that he was shirking his responsibility to thoroughly vet Bove’s credentials.

“No one can say that I don’t take whistleblower complaints seriously, or that I don’t investigate allegations in good faith,” said Grassley, the 91-year-old co-founder of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus. “I’ve always said that my door is open to whistleblowers, and my efforts regarding the Bove nomination show this is true.”

A second whistleblower, represented by the nonprofit group Whistleblower Aid, claimed to support the complaint, while Grassley’s staff met with attorneys for a third whistleblower Monday. Democrats said this was further proof that Bove’s nomination should be reconsidered — but Grassley countered that Democrats had mishandled the whistleblower’s allegations and questioned the late timing, given a final vote on Bove was poised to take place in the coming days.

“My message to the three whistleblowers is this: just because I may disagree with the conclusions in a whistleblower disclosure, it doesn’t mean that I don’t support a whistleblower’s right to come forward,” Grassley said Tuesday.

Democrats’ case against Bove resonated with Collins, who has split with Trump on a number of nominees more than seven months into the president’s second term.

“We have to have judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution and do so regardless of what their personal views may be,” she said in a statement. “Mr. Bove’s political profile and some of the actions he has taken in his leadership roles at the Department of Justice cause me to conclude he would not serve as an impartial jurist.”

But Democrats ultimately couldn’t peel off the two other Republicans necessary to thwart Bove’s confirmation. Republicans could have lost up to three senators in and still confirmed the nominee with Vice President JD Vance as the tiebreaking vote. Among the other potential defectors, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), member of the Judiciary panel, had effectively sunk the confirmation chances for Trump’s previous U.S. attorney nominee for the District of Columbia. But in the case of Bove, Tillis said he was hesitant to place weight in the anonymous complaints.

Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin said he was not surprised by Bove’s inevitable confirmation. He pointed to the fact that Attorney General Pam Bondi made an appearance in person at his confirmation hearing — an unusual move for a judicial nominee that underscored the pressure Republicans were under to endorse Trump’s pick.

Still, he decried the lack of Republican interest in getting to the bottom of the allegations against Bove: “They can’t answer the basic question: why wouldn’t you allow a whistleblower under oath to tell their story as to what he did and lied about before our committee?” Durbin said of his Republican colleagues. “They’re not interested.”

Congress

Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

Published

1 day ago

October 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.

One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.

“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.

A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.

The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.