Republicans didn't just start embracing Donald Trump as their presidential nominee this week: In their continued refusal to take action on Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, they wholeheartedly affirmed their unshakeable commitment to making sure Trump gets to fill Antonin Scalia's vacant seat. That prospect is not only as scary as it is revolting, it also just upped the already stratospheric stakes of this year's elections to even greater heights.
Could you imagine Trump picking a nominee? Who would he select? Perhaps someone like his longtime special counsel, Michael Cohen, who, just last year, told the Daily Beast that Trump couldn't possibly have raped his first wife, Ivana Trump, despite her allegations that he once had:
"You're talking about the frontrunner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as a private individual who never raped anybody. And, of course, understand that by the very definition, you can't rape your spouse."
"It is true. You cannot rape your spouse. And there's very clear case law."
Cohen—who is still in Trump's employ—then advised the Daily Beast reporters he spoke with not to publish their story, threatening, "I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I'm going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting."
That's the kind of legal mind Trump surrounds himself with, so let's not mince words: If Trump gets to choose a Supreme Court justice whose jurisprudence he admires, it's going to be … disgusting.
That's why we have to double our efforts to make sure Democrats keep the White House and win back the Senate. Our choice is between someone who will bring about the first liberal majority on the Supreme Court in generations, or someone appointed by a president whose top legal adviser doesn’t think marital rape exists.
To make sure we wind up with the former—and avoid the latter at all costs—Daily Kos has endorsed a broad slate of Democratic candidates running for Senate, and today we're adding two more:
● Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, who is fighting to keep Harry Reid's seat blue, and
● Former Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Katie McGinty, who is working to unseat GOP Sen. Pat Toomey
As crucial as the Supreme Court is, there's something else at play here, too: Both of our new endorsees are women, as are the majority of the candidates on our Senate slate. Trump's hateful rhetoric toward women is going to play a central role in this campaign, and Democratic women will be at the forefront in exposing his misogyny—and tying Republican senators to it at every step of the way.
Cortez Masto and McGinty will help do just that, so we have to help them. Senate races are extremely expensive, but what better way to push back against Republican super PACs than with small-dollar, people-powered contributions? With our strength in numbers, it doesn't matter what you give, just that you give.
So please donate $3, or whatever you can, so that Katie McGinty and Catherine Cortez Masto can defeat Republicans and keep Donald Trump's stubby fingers off the Supreme Court.