Washington, D.C. — Today, the White House announced that Matthew Petersen, a nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, would withdraw from consideration after he was unable to answer basic questions about the legal process. In response, Michele Jawando, vice president of Legal Progress at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
Matthew Petersen is merely the latest on a growing list of Trump judicial nominees who are wholly unqualified and unprepared to sit on the federal bench. It’s sad that the president would put up a nominee who had no trial experience without thoroughly vetting his credentials ahead of time. And it shows how this administration believes having extreme conservative views is the only thing that counts when it comes to filling seats on the federal courts. After the nominations of Brett Talley and Jeff Mateer were scuttled last week, the Senate finally seems willing to do its job and stop rubber-stamping unqualified nominees. It is about time the Senate stood up to these nominees after handing the president a record number of appeals court confirmations.
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