US Sen. Dick Durbin's latest role: Leading Democrats on judging President Trump's top nominees

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : "I don't know what to expect, other than to tell you the starting point is a good one," Durbin said in December, noting that he and Grassley worked together on criminal justice reforms that Trump signed in his first term.
41% : While acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that he did "not believe the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President's agenda faithfully," Durbin said the move was "a brazen assault on the rule of law that also severely undermines our national security and public safety.""Unelected Trump lackeys are carrying out widespread political retribution against our nation's career law enforcement officials," he said in a statement.
40% : Trump nominated Barrett less than two months before the 2020 election, and Republicans pushed it through.
35% : Durbin is only two years younger than former President Joe Biden -- who opted not to run for re-election amid concerns that his advanced age had diminished his ability to lead the country -- and the senator is nearly two years older than Trump.
29% : "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record," Kavanaugh said.
24% : "President Trump would rather have the FBI and DOJ full of blind admirers and loyalists than experienced law enforcement officers.
22% : Shortly after the 2024 election, Axios reported that unnamed Democrats "were nervous" about whether Durbin "has the fire to fight Trump nominees," citing his age, although the story quoted no Senate colleagues opposing Durbin.
15% : They sent a letter to Trump asking the president to provide a "substantive rationale" for Trump firing the inspectors general of 18 federal agencies.
12% : Trump also fired career DOJ lawyers who worked with a special prosecutor on Trump-related investigations.
2% : Since Trump won the 2024 election, Durbin hammered Patel for repeatedly touting conspiracy theories and threatening to go after Trump's enemies and questioned whether Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who represented Trump during his first impeachment trial, would act independently of the president as the nation's attorney general.

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