At his speech on his judicial confirmations, Trump segues from his prepared shout-out to John Cornyn to some additional mockery of Beto O'Rourke.
Trump began by accurately citing his number of appointments to the federal bench. He's over 155 in total; as of late October, he was at 43 appeals court appointments, more than any other president through that point in the term dating back at least past Kennedy.
Trump on Mitch McConnell and judicial appointments: "Generations from now, Americans will know that Mitch McConnell helped save the constitutional rule of law in America. It's true."
Trump calls White House counsel Pat Cipollone "the strong, silent type." He adds, "I always wanted to be the strong, silent type, but it never worked out for me."
Trump complains about "activist" judges. Reading a text, he says that they are "imposing unworkable edicts on businesses, workers, families and law enforcement." He ad-libs, "They give many, many bad nights to many, many people. Including presidents. Including presidents."
McConnell: "You had been helped enormously by a decision that I made, and these guys backed me up, not to let President Obama fill that Scalia vacancy on the way out the door." (Obama nominated Garland with 10 months to go in his term, so "way out the door" is debatable.)
Trump tells his usual false Sir story about how he was left "142" judicial vacancies by Obama. ("I said thank you, President Obama, very much.") It was 104, in large part on account of McConnell's obstruction strategy.
Trump says he'll have more judicial vacancies to fill for various reasons, like retirements, and: "I never want to mention the D-word - the death word. I won't mention death. But that happens too."
Trump asks people to look up a moment in which James Comey "choked" under questioning from Sen. Chuck Grassley. "A lot of choke there," he explains.
Trump says again that the Academy Awards has "died" as a big success, now that it has gone anti-Trump, and is now "just a regular program."
Trump calls Lindsey Graham up. Graham says the defining moment of Trump's presidency was his decision to push for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh.
Trump says he found Kavanaugh's accusers' actions "disgraceful."
Trump boasts of the pace of his appointments, says they'll run out of openings at some point. In what seems to be a joke, he muses: "Would you like to add a few judges? That wouldn't be a bad idea. How 'bout adding another 100 or so?"
Trump says last night was a "very big night" with "tremendous" election results.
Trump says that people are now coming around to realizing he is right about the wall and the border. "A lot of people have told me that over the last couple of days," he says without identifying these people even at his usual level of identification.
Trump: "Our entire nation was stunned by the cruel campaign of lies and slander and abuse that was hurled at Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but we refused to cave in, and the left-wing mob -- we will never, ever allow that to happen."
