Panicked over the thought of President Donald Trump replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired from the Supreme Court after the Court’s 2017-2018 session, leftists are digging through the dirt, looking for evidence that Kennedy has been blackmailed, or that the Trump White House has concocted a complex financial scheme to reward the aging Justice for abandoning his seat.
The New York Times kicked off speculation that Trump had unduly influenced Kennedy’s decision last week with an article suggesting the White House “nudged” Kennedy off the bench. Unmoored to reality, dedicated leftist media took it from there.
According to leftist rag, Think Progress, Democrat Members of Congress should look into what they believe is a “suspicious business relationship” between Kennedy’s son, who works for Deutch Bank, and the Trump family, who got a loan from Deutch Bank after being turned down from several other international money-lending groups.
The New Republic, now famous for calling for Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders’ ouster from the progressive movement, followed up on the Think Progress report, declaring the relationship “shady,” even though there’s no evidence that Kennedy’s son had anything to do with Deutch Bank’s decision to lend money to the Trump organization.
Even the Center for American Progress got in on the act:
Just to state this: Justice Kennedy’s son gave a billion dollar loan to Trump when no one would give him a dime, and Justice Kennedy has been ruling in favor of the Trump Administration position for 2 years as the Court decides 5-4 case after 5-4 case.
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) June 29, 2018
But the theory that Trump used Kennedy’s familiar relations to force a resignation reads a bit like South Park’s “Underpants Gnome” theory on how stealing underpants from small children would result in a profit: step one, borrow money from Deutch Bank; step two, ???; step three, new Supreme Court Justice.
For starters, Kennedy and his family doesn’t profit from the relationship at all. There’s no incentive for Kennedy or his son to follow through on any promise. Trump only wins in the scenario: he gets a loan and a new Supreme Court Justice, and Kennedy’s family gets an amorphous promise that the court will react favorably to any case involving Deutch Bank — a promise that could go sour swiftly, given that there are nine members of the Supreme Court.
Not to mention, Kennedy’s son left the bank in 2009.
The theory is so bad that even Slate, normally a left-leaning publication, is embarrassed. Justice Kennedy is 80 years old, and with the next election as yet unpredictable, he’s more than happy to be replaced by a Republican president.