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WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

Donald Trump, Alina Habba, and the Senate's 'Blue Slips'

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

42.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump pushes the Senate to give confirmation hearings to his nominees, after a federal judge rules that Alina Habba has been unlawfully acting as a federal prosecutor since July, and that Trump's maneuvers to retain her don't follow the law. The White House will appeal, but the Senate seems reluctant to end its "blue slip" tradition for vetting home-state appointees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.3

From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

0:39.6

President Trump demands Senate action on his nominees for federal district judge and prosecutor,

0:45.6

calling for an end to the tradition of so-called blue slips in the Senate.

0:50.4

After a court rules that his workarounds are out of bounds,

0:53.7

and Alina Haba has been unlawfully occupying

0:56.2

the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey since the beginning of July. Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson

1:01.6

with the Wall Street Journal. We're joined today by my colleagues on the editorial page,

1:06.5

editorial board member Manet Uquay-Brua and columnist Kim Strassel. President Trump nominated Lena Haba as

1:13.0

the U.S. attorney for New Jersey earlier this year, and while waiting for Senate confirmation of

1:18.2

that post, he also named her interim U.S. attorney a short-term role in order to fill vacancies.

1:25.8

Now, through a series of machinations, she has been switched to an acting U.S. attorney,

1:31.2

but notably, Manet, a ruling by a federal district court judge in a case challenging that appointment,

1:37.5

says that she is not lawfully occupying that office of U.S. attorney,

1:42.0

and this also, her actions since that point, may be declared void, unquote.

...

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