00:00Senate will be in order.
00:02Thank you, Mr. President.
00:03Well, in a few moments, Senate Republicans will vote to advance another Donald Trump loyalist to the federal bench,
00:10Edward Arteo in the Southern District of Florida.
00:13Mr. Arteo's nomination is a textbook example of a quid pro quo, if there ever was one.
00:20Listen to this.
00:21While Arteo was actively lobbying the White House for a federal judgeship,
00:26in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election last year,
00:30while he was begging Donald Trump for a nomination to the bench,
00:33while he was meeting with Republican senators to angle for their recommendation,
00:37he was at the same time part of a panel of Florida state judges hearing Donald Trump's defamation case
00:46against the Pulitzer Prize Board earlier this February.
00:50Did Mr. Arteo do the right thing and recuse himself from the case?
00:54Of course not.
00:55Did he inform anyone about this potential conflict of interest?
00:59Of course not.
01:00Instead, Arteo stayed on the case and, surprise, surprise, ruled in favor of Donald Trump.
01:07That's no coincidence.
01:09That's no accident.
01:10That is Donald Trump rigging our courts with his loyalists.
01:15Donald Trump gave Arteo the chance to prove his fealty to him.
01:19Arteo eagerly obliged, and Donald Trump rewarded him with a nomination for a federal judgeship.
01:27This nomination is just another example of Donald Trump making a total mockery of our federal judiciary.
01:35And it proves the point that the only thing, the only thing Trump cares about when it comes to judges is unyielding fealty to him,
01:43and why we need to vote on these judges and be able to speak about these judges because there is so much, so much bad stuff and corruption going on.
01:55I yield the floor.
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