Politics
Opinion: Unhappy with the Supreme Court? Your vote for president could make it worse
By now it shouldn’t need to be said: When Americans vote for a president, the federal courts are on the ballot as well. Yet too few voters, especially among those in the decisive middle, make their choice with that in mind.
Think about it: The issues that voters do care most about in this election year — immigration, reproductive rights, the economy and government regulation, gun control — increasingly are decided in federal courts reshaped by Donald Trump, including the Supreme Court, because of the paralyzing dysfunction in Congress.
Opinion Columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
Add to those perennial issues the novel one of 2024: Trump’s legal accountability. Here, the judiciary’s impact couldn’t be more clear. Foot-dragging — by the Supreme Court, where three Trump appointees sit, and at the Florida district court where a Trump-appointed judge presides — has all but assured that voters won’t get criminal verdicts before election day on the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat and to squirrel away top-secret documents.
We’ve learned the hard way: It matters whether Trump or President Biden is picking federal judges, just as it matters which party controls the Senate and has the power to confirm them.
Only since the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning a half-century of abortion rights have Democrats begun to wise up to what Republicans have long known: With executive and legislative power, your party can put its stamp on the unelected third branch of government, the judiciary, and that legacy can long outlast the politicians. As Trump lackey Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina recently said of 2024, “One of the big issues on the ballot is trying to have a more conservative judiciary.”
Be forewarned, Democrats. Flip the script — mobilize your voters around this issue.
Here are the stakes: If Biden wins, he can continue the unfinished work of trying to offset the right-wing tilt (and white male dominance) that Trump gave to the courts by naming more judges in a single term than any president other than Jimmy Carter. Biden’s effort could well be slowed if, as widely expected, Republicans take control of the Senate and gum up the confirmation works.
But better slow action in the Senate on Biden appointees than a return, if Trump wins, to a fast track for extreme right-wingers. Such as Trump-appointee Aileen Cannon, the novice Florida district judge (mis)handling the former president’s trial involving classified material. Or Matthew Kacsmaryk, the Texas district judge and culture warrior who last year sought to outlaw mifepristone, one of two drugs used for the medication abortions that account for more than half of all abortions in the country. He filled his opinion with the jargon of antiabortion activists, writing at one point that mifepristone, which is used just up to 10 weeks’ pregnancy, “ultimately starves the unborn human until death.” The Supreme Court will hear that case March 26.
Another consideration for voters: While a reelected Biden likely wouldn’t be able to alter the imbalance at a Supreme Court between six archconservatives and three liberals, he could prevent it from getting even worse.
None of the justices are expected to retire soon. However, the two oldest (and most conservative), Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., are in their mid-70s and could opt to step aside if Trump wins, court watchers speculate, so that he could replace them with like-minded jurists young enough to serve for decades. (In normal times, we might already be rid of Thomas through impeachment or resignation, given his well-documented ethical lapses and his refusal to recuse himself from Jan. 6 cases despite his wife’s complicity in efforts to overturn Biden’s election. But these aren’t normal times.)
When Trump reluctantly left the White House, his judicial picks made up one-third of the Supreme Court, nearly one-third of the 13 appeals courts and more than a quarter of the 94 district courts. Because relative youth and proven Republican bona fides were the job criteria set by Trump and the trio to whom he outsourced his court-packing — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, then-White House Counsel Don McGahn and former Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo — Trump judges likely will be prominent on the federal bench well past midcentury.
“Topping Trump seems impossible” was the headline last fall on an analysis of Biden’s judicial appointments by Russell Wheeler, of the Brookings Institution, who tracks the courts. In an update in January, however, Wheeler said that although Biden probably won’t top Trump’s one-term total for judges on the appeals courts, he could match him on district court judges.
Should Biden fall short, it won’t be for lack of trying. More than Democratic predecessors Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he has made judicial nominations a priority in the wake of Team Trump’s single-minded courts makeover. Better late than never?
Biden was, after all, a leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee for years; he knows his stuff. (Except we do have him to thank for Thomas’ confirmation three decades ago.) And Senate Democrats, with their one-vote majority, have helped. Together, they set a record for confirmations in a president’s first year in office, though the pace was only “so-so,” as Wheeler put it, by the end of last year.
One problem is that Biden didn’t inherit nearly as many vacancies as Trump did. McConnell had thwarted confirmation of many nominees in Obama’s final year — most famously, Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court — so Trump was able to fill the seats. Then in Trump’s final year, McConnell nearly made good on a vow to “leave no vacancy behind”; he even rammed 14 nominees to confirmation after Trump lost the 2020 election, the first time a defeated president’s nominees were confirmed since 1897.
Now Democrats must copy McConnell’s zeal. Fifty-seven judgeships are open, and Biden has picked nominees for just a third of them. For one thing, he and Senate leaders are being too deferential to Republicans about whom to nominate for red-state vacancies. Just get ‘em all filled before election day, lest Trump and a Republican-run Senate once again inherit a bonanza of seats.
If the republic is lucky, voters will give Biden another four years to keep at it. And that’s more likely if enough of them remember: The bench is on the ballot too.
Politics
Preliminary Hearing for Man Accused of Killing Charlie Kirk Starts in Utah
Prosecutors on Monday began laying out their case against the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. It was the first day of a weeklong preliminary hearing that will determine whether or not there is enough evidence against the accused killer to stand trial.
Politics
Top Platner ally turns on him after bombshell rape allegation rocks campaign: ‘Red line’
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Support for embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is cratering among Democrats, with one of his most prominent supporters calling on him to exit the race following a harrowing rape allegation.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., rescinded his endorsement and called on Platner to suspend his campaign following a bombshell Politico report detailing a rape allegation by Maine resident Jenny Racicot, 41, who previously dated the scandal-plagued candidate.
Platner immediately denied Racicot’s account — which alleges that he barged into her home in 2021 and forced her to have unprotected sex — but has said his campaign is determining its next steps.
She also went on CNN Monday evening shortly after the report was published to tell host Jake Tapper that “by dictionary definition” Platner “raped” her.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks at a town hall event on Feb. 20, 2026 in Stanford, California. The town hall focused on taxing billionaires and the future of AI. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
DEMOCRATS BREAK WITH SCANDAL-PLAGUED GRAHAM PLATNER, WARN OF ‘CIVIL WAR’ IN PARTY
“I thought, here’s a man who was drunk and who, by dictionary definition, raped me. And he’s blaming drunk women,” Racicot said. “So I just felt like that was a very odd take to have on that. And I also feel like with all of the comments that he made about women, sexual assault, rape, even, um, you know, the comments that he had made that was in The New York Times article about, you know, threatening people with rape, like, why does this person have this issue, like scattered throughout their life, throughout their commentary, like it‘s on their mind?”
“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said in a post on social media Monday evening. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”
Khanna’s statement preceded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, issuing a joint statement calling on Platner to “immediately” leave the race, so the party can choose a new nominee.
The pair said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) would not invest in Maine — a top pick-up opportunity for Democrats in November’s midterm elections — if he continued to seek the battleground seat held by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Both Schumer and Gillibrand supported Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, in the contentious primary and did not endorse Platner until he won the party’s nomination.
Meanwhile, Khanna, a far-left populist with likely presidential ambitions, had embraced Platner’s insurgent Senate campaign for months amid a patchwork of controversies.
Khanna personally campaigned with the Maine Senate hopeful in June shortly before Platner became the party’s nominee. The campaign stop came just one day after Lyndsey Fifield, a former Platner girlfriend, accused Platner of abuse — an allegation first reported by The New York Times that Platner has fiercely denied.
By that point, Platner was also facing scrutiny for sending sexually explicit messages to at least half a dozen women while married, making a plethora of offensive online statements over the period of a decade and getting a Nazi-linked tattoo that he wore for most of his adult life.
Shannon Watts, a Democratic strategist and founder of the gun control group Mom Demands Action, slammed the timing of Khanna’s statement.
“You flew to Maine to campaign with him AFTER he was accused of assault against another woman,” Watts wrote on social media.
Khanna previously appeared to dismiss the severity of Fifield’s account alongside many Democratic lawmakers, who seized on her background in Republican politics. He also argued that Platner, a combat veteran who has struggled with PTSD, had overcome a dark past and was deserving of redemption.
“Here you have a case of someone who had a dark chapter in his life, was in toxic relationships, was ashamed about it, who served this country, and the Maine voters are saying, ‘Look, let’s give him some grace, and his focus is stopping these wars, and it’s getting national health insurance, and it’s taking on economic inequality,” Khanna told CBS News in an interview.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his primary election event in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026. (CJ Gunther/Getty Images)
WATCH: DEM SENATORS EXCUSE PLATNER’S CONDUCT AT CRISIS HUDDLE WITH EMBATTLED MAINE CANDIDATE
And Khanna told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum in June that he asked Platner if there were any credible allegations of sexual assault that had yet to be revealed. He said Platner denied it.
“I made it clear that, for me, is a red line,” the California lawmaker said. “And he said, no, there is not.”
“Now, obviously, he had texts that were allegedly consensual, and while he was married, And that’s a matter for him and his wife. And his wife came out and said that she forgave him. And so that is a different matter for me than abuse or assault or what people did in the Epstein class. It’s a very different matter.”
Khanna was not the only prominent Platner supporter to disavow the Senate hopeful following Monday’s rape allegation.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., an early Platner supporter, was the first prominent Democrat to rescind his endorsement after Politico’s report broke.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., rescinded his endorsement Monday evening, but stopped short of calling on Platner to exit the race.
Gallego, a former ally of disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has faced scrutiny over his past treatment of women. The Senate Ethics Committee recently dismissed a complaint brought by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., in a bipartisan manner.
His Arizona colleague, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who did not endorse Platner, also called on the Senate hopeful to suspend his campaign.
“Character and accountability matter regardless of party,” Kelly wrote on social media. “It’s time for Graham Platner to drop out and allow for someone else to be nominated and give Democrats the best chance to win this seat in November.”
Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has championed socialist candidates across the country, also distanced himself from Platner on Monday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., talks to reporters as he heads for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on Jun. 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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“This is beyond red flags. This is irredeemable,” Piker said during his livestream.
Fox News Digital reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.
Politics
Trump heads to NATO as tensions simmer with Europe
WASHINGTON — The leaders of Europe are bracing for another turbulent summit with President Trump this week as NATO members gather for their annual meeting in the Turkish capital.
European diplomats view Trump’s decision to attend as a positive sign of his continued commitment to the alliance. But the president’s grievances with several European governments over their refusal to join the U.S. war with Iran have cast a pall over a summit already strained by Trump’s wavering support for the continent.
The secretary-general of the transatlantic alliance, Mark Rutte, told reporters on Monday that Trump had aired his resentments in a recent phone call. But Rutte countered with a mix of flattery and countervailing facts that has thus far kept Trump engaged.
While Trump has accused European leaders of denying U.S. forces access to allied bases for takeoffs and refueling during the war, Rutte noted that about 5,000 sorties supporting Operation Epic Fury launched from European airfields. And last Friday, France and Britain committed to a joint military mission with Oman to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz — “an extremely important development,” Rutte said.
At last year’s summit, held in The Hague, all NATO member states — with the exception of Spain — agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035, marking a significant increase in historic spending goals for modern Europe. The pledge is divided into two categories, with 3.5% of spending allocated to core military requirements, and the rest committed to a broad set of security-related investments.
Trump’s tough love on the alliance “is, I think, bringing NATO closer together,” the secretary general told reporters.
“You could argue that he is the first president of the U.S. since Eisenhower who was able to come to this situation where the Europeans and the Canadians will spend the same as the Americans” on security, Rutte said. “This equalization was a wish for 50, 60 years, and now it’s happening — I think in large part due to his leadership.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks to reporters Monday ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
(Hussein Malla / Associated Press)
In a video message posted on social media Monday, Trump’s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, said the summit this week would serve as a “report card” to determine whether countries were beginning to fulfill their commitments from last year.
He offered a note of optimism and suggested the president’s goal is to enhance, rather than undermine, the alliance.
“The United States will be here, but we also need our allies to be here. We cannot do it alone, and the American taxpayer should no longer bear the burden,” Whitaker said.
A White House schedule for Trump’s trip lists bilateral meetings with Rutte and the leaders of Turkey, Syria and Ukraine, in between alliance-wide meals and conferences.
Ukraine will remain at the top of the agenda, Trump told reporters Monday, expressing hope that the war could soon come to an end after four brutal years of fighting.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the greatest loss of life in Europe since World War II, resulting in more than 1 million casualties, including an estimated 600,000 dead. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022, following his covert invasions of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and eastern regions in 2014, Russian forces have captured roughly 12% of Ukraine’s territory.
The war has settled into a deadly stalemate since a 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to break Russian defensive lines. While Russian forces have occasionally advanced, they have only managed to hold marginal gains along the front, at tremendous cost.
In recent weeks, however, expanded Ukrainian drone and missile capabilities have shifted the dynamic, striking military production sites deep inside Russia and targets near Moscow, bringing the war more directly into the Russian public consciousness and raising questions in the Russian capital whether the war effort is sustainable.
Ukraine’s boldness has impressed the Trump administration, Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, told the Financial Times this week.
“I think he does feel pressure,” Trump said of Putin, addressing reporters in the Oval Office before departing for Turkey on Monday.
The president referred to an ongoing U.S. effort to end the war, a goal that has remained elusive for Trump since returning to office.
“I think we’re getting much closer than people realize,” he said. “President Putin wants it to end, I will tell you that. Very strongly. Had a good call. And President Zelensky actually wants it to end now.”
“We’re going to be going to NATO, and we’re going to be talking about it,” Trump added. “And I think we’re going to get it ended. It’s been terrible.”
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