CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Sen. Amy Klobuchar trashed ex-President Donald Trump’s judicial appointments amid the controversy over rulings on the abortion pill.
Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. Northern District of Texas ruled Friday to suspend FDA approval of mifepristone, a drug used to perform medication abortions, effective one week hence in order to allow time for an appeal. The ruling has generated blistering criticism and backlash.
But another ruling Friday cuts the opposite way. Judge Thomas Owen Rice of the U.S. District for the Eastern District of Washington issued a ruling prohibiting the Food and Drug Administration from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone,” which is protected in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, Cooper repeatedly slammed Trump’s appointment of “ultra-conservative” and “unqualified” judges, first in his interview with Democratic New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez:
COOPER: You know, it is one of the things sort of that a lot of people didn’t pay that much attention to during the Trump administration, because there were so many bizarre things going on every day. But Mitch McConnell was, you know, getting Judges appointed to the bench who were the most conservative Judges possible.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: And they weren’t just conservative, they were completely unqualified, and you know, the American Bar Association, along with many other organizations, they issue recommendations or assessments, oftentimes, some of them are nonpartisan, about how qualified a candidate maybe to be, you know, nominated for the bench, and many of them were completely unqualified.
Cooper brought the issue up again while interviewing Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who agreed the Trump appointments have been damaging:
COOPER: It does seem like the judge in Texas focused on what he said were concerns he had about the drugs impact psychologically on women. I talked to a physician earlier in the program who said there’s no evidence of that. In fact, the psychological harm is for women who are trying to get this procedure and are unable to. I mean, does the judge’s decision make sense just on the merits of what he ruled?
KLOBUCHAR: No. Not at all. Especially when he said it was rushed four years available for over two decades. That is not rushed. Used by — in one year alone, half a million women was the way that they accessed abortion care. So this is obviously outrageous. You can see a very strong case on the other side, and then you have states all over the country.
My guess, it won’t just be these 12 that will also be bringing cases as well, because as you know, there’s still a number of states, including mine, that is an island in the middle of a number of states that ban abortion now that allow for abortion. So I think that his ruling just under the law makes no sense when you look at FDA law.
On the other hand, I don’t think we’re surprised another, you know, Trump appointed judge. You have got these people that Donald Trump put in. You’ve got Supreme Court that did all it could in that Dobbs decision to overturn 50 years of precedent, and you’ve got women and men from Kansas to Alaska —
COOPER: Yes.
KLOBUCHAR: — telling them, no, we don’t agree with this. 70, 80 percent of the public is with us. So one answer, Anderson, of course, is to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act in Congress.
COOPER: Yes.
KLOBUCHAR: But right now, we have a House of Representatives controlled by the Republicans that won’t let it through.
COOPER: Yes.
Watch above via CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.
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