Elizabeth Warren: Trump "will never be president of the United States"
In an address Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, will slam the corrupting influence of special interests and money on the judicial system in America and cite presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump as a prime example of the problem.
"Powerful interests are now launching a full-scale assault on the integrity of the federal judiciary and its judges," she'll say, according to excerpts of her remarks. Warren will talk about the nomination process that's left President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in limbo and will attack those who are "tearing down our centuries-old process for appointing judges."
Garland's nomination is being held up because Republicans want the next president to be able to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Warren will also denounce attacks on federal judges "at the first sign that they might put the rule of law above devotion to the rich and powerful," referring to the way Trump has been talking about the judge presiding over a pair of lawsuits involving Trump University, Gonzalo Curiel.
Warren will praise Curiel as "one of countless American patriots who has spent decades quietly serving his country, sometimes at great risk to his own life."
She'll then castigate Donald Trump as "a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and serves nobody but himself. And that is just one of the many reasons why he will never be president of the United States."
Though she's mounting a strong offensive against Trump, Warren doesn't really think Curiel needs her to protect him.
"Judge Curiel has survived far worse than Donald Trump. He has survived actual assassination attempts," Warren will say. "He'll have no problem surviving Trump's nasty temper tantrums."
Warren also intends to take aim at GOP congressional leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who have endorsed Trump.
"Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell want Donald Trump to appoint the next generation of judges," she'll say. "They want those judges to tilt the law to favor big business and billionaires like Trump. They just want Donald to quit being so vulgar and obvious about it."