White House Could Expand List of Supreme Court Possibles

The press secretary was referring to Trump's original list of 21 prospective nominees that he released early in the 2016 campaign.

“I’m sure that will definitely be a strong part of it,” Spicer replied. “I can’t say that there won’t be someone added on or not, but it proved to be a very helpful list the first time. So he feels very comfortable about the list but I can’t say for certain that there’s no one that couldn’t get added to a future list.”

Along with then-U.S. Appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch of Colorado, the list included the reported runners-up for the court vacancy and fellow Appellate Judges Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania and William Pryor of Alabama. Gorsuch, Hardiman, and Pryor are all considered strong conservatives.

Spicer’s statement was different from that of deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders when Newsmax posed the same question at the briefing on May 4.

“My understanding is that he would stay focused and draw from that list,” Sanders told me at the time. “So I don’t see any reason for him to go a different direction.”

On Monday, I asked Spicer about the discrepancy between her words on May 4 and his that day.

“My only point is that as we fill a lot of vacancies at the circuit-court level all the way up and down the judiciary,” Sanders said. “There may be people that come into contact that are highly qualified for one reason or another, and that the president may choose at some point down the road, if there’s every a vacancy, to consider someone else.

Spicer added, “I think obviously the list that the president put down initially of 21, but now that Justice Gorsuch is off that list he may want to put one additional on. But he always has the flexibility, as he encounters additional members — potential members of the bench.”

Talk of the original list could be fueled by changing circumstances with some of the names. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young, for example, recently signaled he will leave the bench to seek the Republican nomination against Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2018.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.