President Trump said Wednesday night that he’s “honored” by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision to retire and allow Mr. Trump to nominate his replacement.
“I’m so honored that he decided to do this during our term,” Mr. Trump said in Wisconsin. “I think that showed confidence in us.”
Justice Kennedy announced Wednesday that he will retire in July. The president said he and his advisers are already hard at work on choosing a nominee.
“As soon as I’m finished here, I’m going to hop in that plane, I’m going back to Washington and we’re going to pick ourselves one great United States Supreme Court justice to take the place of a great man,” Mr. Trump told the audience at a electronics plant. “We’re going to start working on that process, we’ve already started. And hopefully we’re going to make you very proud.”
The president has said he’ll pick the nominee from a list of 25 conservative candidates that the White House updated last year, after Mr. Trump successfully nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch to the high court.
Mr. Trump said during his campaign for office, he was told that “the most important decision a president can make is the picking of United States Supreme Court justices, if you’re lucky enough to do that.”
“We had a fantastic choice with Justice Gorsuch … and we’re going to try and do just as good,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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