Donald Trump names Brett Kavanaugh as supreme court nominee – as it happened

There’s some speculation that the 9pm hour for Trump’s announcement was timed to coincide with Sean Hannity’s eponymous show on Fox News, which also begins at 9pm. Hannity is one of the president’s staunchest TV defenders.

Last week the White House hired former Fox News co-president Bill Shine as the White House’s deputy chief of staff for communications and assistant to the president. His appointment came more than a year after he resigned from the network amid allegations that he covered up sexual assault allegations against Roger Ailes, the late former chairman of Fox News.

Hannity, who favors judge Barrett, the socialist conservative Roman Catholic on Trump’s shortlist, played golf with the president in New Jersey on Sunday, according to the NYT.

Democrats are under immense pressure from the liberal base to reject Trump’s nominee for the supreme court.

Tonight activists with the progressive organization Indivisible will gather outside of Schumer’s New York City office urging the minority leader to “whip the vote” against Trump’s pick.

Schumer has said the Democrats’ strategy will be to persuade two pro-abortion Republican senators that Trump’s nominee is a threat to Roe v Wade, the landmark supreme court case that legalized abortion access nationwide.

But some activists want him to do more – and in some cases more than is possible given the Democrats minority in the Senate.

A handful of red state Democratic senators were invited to watch the unveiling of Trump’s supreme court nominee in the White House East Room tonight.

Statement from Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly:

“While I appreciate the invitation from the White House to attend this evening’s announcement, I declined so that I can meet first with the nominee in a setting where we can discuss his or her experience and perspectives. In the coming days, I will be reviewing the record and qualifications of the president’s nominee.”

Statement from the office of North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp:

“Senator Heitkamp was invited but isn’t able to attend tonight. She has made clear – as she said to the president in person two weeks ago – that she considers fully vetting supreme court nominees one of the most important jobs of any US senator, and she plans to fulfill that critical duty.”

Tweet from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin:

The Guardian has also confirmed that Alabama Senator Doug Jones was also invited and will not attend.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, could not contain his glee at the prospect of appointing a second conservative judge to the supreme court during his remarks on the Senate floor today.

During his speech, McConnell accused Democrats of using “scare tactics” to build a case against Trump’s nominee.

Justice Kennedy’s resignation letter had barely arrived in the president’s hands before several of our Democratic colleagues began declaring their blanket opposition to anyone at all – anyone – that the president might name.

Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said that the next supreme court nominee will be consequential in deciding “enormously important issues”, specifically healthcare and a woman’s ability to access an abortion.

“ These two rights – affordable health care and women’s freedom to make sensitive health care decisions – hang in the balance with this nominee,” Schumer said in a floor speech ahead of Trump’s announcement.

The New York said it is meaningless for senators to trust that nominees will respect settled law and said that senators should demand an affirmative statement of support for the liberties of all Americans from the next supreme court nominee”.

At this critical juncture, with so many rights at stake, senators and the American people should expect an affirmative statement of support.

The American people deserve to know what kind of a Justice President Trump’s nominee would be. President Trump is the one who made the litmus test for his nominees, not us. The onus is on his nominee to show where he or she might stand.

Considering the ample evidence that President Trump will only select a nominee who will undermine protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, give greater weight to corporate interests than the interests of our citizens, no matter what precedent says, and vote to overturn Roe v Wade – the next nominee has an obligation – a serious and solemn obligation – to share their personal views on these legal issues, no matter whom President Trump selects tonight.

Perhaps a bit of wishful thinking on the part of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who lobbied for his friend and colleague Utah Senator Mike Lee, a long-shot contender for the posting. (The Senate is in session today and Lee’s presence is expected.)

Trump did interview Lee for the post, the senator’s office said.

As soon as Trump makes his announcement, the conservative organization, Judicial Crisis Network says it will launch a $1.4m national ad buy in Alabama, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia featuring an introductory bio spot about the chosen nominee. The ad campaign targets vulnerable incumbent Democrats who are up for re-election in states Trump won handedly.

Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, were the only Democrats to vote for Trump’s first supreme court nominee, Neil Gorsuch and will be under immense pressure from both sides over their vote this time around.

Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama, who is not up for re-election until 2020, has said he will approach the nomination with an open mind.

“I don’t think my role is to rubber stamp for the president, but it’s also not an automatic knee-jerk no, either,” he told CNN.

Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, announced his opposition to Trump’s supreme court nominee hours before the president revealed his choice.

The finalists were drawn from a list of 25 candidates shaped by the conservative organizations, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. Casey argues that it is “outrageous” the president would limit his choice to such a narrow list of pre-approved judges, any of whom he says would be the “fruit of a corrupt process straight from the DC swamp”.

President Lincoln called on our nation to work to ensure “… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Instead, the GOP is determined to pack the Court with a government of, by, and for extreme Right corporate interests.

Who will get the rose?

Donald Trump’s 9pm supreme court announcement will interrupt ABC’s broadcast of The Bachelorette. While the political class cracks jokes about the president’s predilection for reality TV show drama, the show’s host cut through with a PSA for #BachelorNation

Donald Trump will reveal his replacement for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the supreme court in a primetime address on Monday evening, a choice that could shift the ideological bent of the nation’s highest court for decades.

Trump has reportedly narrowed the pool of candidates to four federal appeals court judges.

• Raymond Kethledge, 51, judge on the United States court of appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Thomas Hardiman, 53, judge on the United States court of appeals for the third circuit
• Brett Kavanaugh, 53, judge on the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit
• Amy Coney Barrett, 46, judge on the United States court of appeals for the seventh circuit

The announcement will set in a motion a brutal – and expensive – political battle over Trump’s supreme court nominee. Democrats are already mobilizing against the possible contenders, arguing that his choice could help undermine abortion rights, healthcare protections, marriage equality, affirmative action and a host of other issues in ways that could fundamentally reshape American life. Republicans meanwhile are lobbying the White House on behalf of their preferred candidate.

Once Trump names his nominee, all eyes will shift to a handful of moderate Democratic and Republican senators. In the Senate, Republicans hold a slim 51-49 advantage. With the expected absence of Republican senator John McCain due to brain cancer, Republicans only have 50 votes.

Over the weekend, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, reportedly told Trump that Kethledge and Hardiman likely face the fewest obstacles in the confirmation process.