Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) called on the White House to drop President Joe Biden’s planned judicial nomination of Chad Meredith, an anti-abortion conservative, during a press briefing on Thursday.
“It’s been plenty of time,” Beshear said. “And by now, they should be telling us that it’s going to be rescinded.”
The Democratic governor told reporters that he won’t stop protesting the Biden administration’s plan.
“You can expect in any conversations on this I will continue to tell them that this is not an acceptable nomination, and I and the rest of Kentucky will oppose it,” he said.
The Louisville Courier Journal noted that Beshear has not yet mentioned Meredith’s anti-abortion stance while rebuking the “indefensible” nomination, including on Thursday.
Rather, the governor has focused his criticism on Meredith’s involvement in former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s (R) controversial pardons while serving as the GOP governor’s deputy general counsel.
“The fact that this individual assisted former Gov. Bevin with the worst misuse or abuse of gubernatorial power –- certainly in my lifetime -– should be disqualifying,” Beshear declared on Thursday.
Beshear’s comments came two days after his office released the emails from the White House informing him that Biden was going to tap Meredith to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
The White House’s first email, sent on June 23, said Biden was going to nominate Meredith the following day –- the day the Supreme Court dismantled Roe v. Wade.
The second email, sent on June 29, told Beshear’s office that the previous email was “pre-decisional and privileged information.”
The governor’s office initially refused to turn over the messages when the Louisville Courier Journal requested them under the open records law. It’s unclear why Beshear changed his mind on releasing the emails.
Kentucky officials have suggested that the jaw-dropping nomination is part of an agreement, albeit unconfirmed, between Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The Republican Senate leader reportedly promised not to block the President’s other federal nominations in return.
More specifically, according to Slate, in exchange for Meredith’s lifetime appointment to the bench, McConnell reportedly agreed not to stonewall Biden’s picks for U.S. Attorney in the state.
The White House has flatly refused to comment on the nomination and whether Biden plans to go through with it in the face of fury from his fellow Democrats and abortion rights advocates.
McConnell has been similarly tight-lipped on the issue.
