Another Alaska federal judge nominee shows his lack of courage, tainting his future on the bench
Future federal judge Kyle Reardon will be the second Alaska judge to disgrace himself before he ever touches the gavel, tainting whatever he does in years to come in his lifetime government job.
The Honorable Reardon refused to admit in a Senate confirmation hearing that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
He will likely join the Honorable Judge Aaron Peterson on the federal bench. Peterson also failed this basic test of political courage and character in refusing to say during a February hearing that Joe Biden won in 2020.
They will have apologists aplenty who will say they are models of courage, but they had to get down on their knees when they appeared before Congress or Trump would have pulled their nominations.
Probably true. That will never justify their cowardice, however.
Reardon and all judge nominees under Trump had to agree in advance that they were not allowed to tell the truth and say that Trump lost the 2020 election.
They were allowed to say that Biden was “certified” as the winner. There were not allowed to say that Biden won the popular vote. They were allowed to claim that this is an open matter.
“I would like to thank President Trump for this nomination. It is the professional honor or a lifetime and I am humbled by his confidence in me,” Reardon said.
Reardon agreed with the other nominees before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that “Joe Biden was certified as the winner.” He couldn’t find the guts to say that Biden was the winner and that Trump lost.
Reardon was also predictably gutless in failing to say that the Capitol as attacked on January 6 or that Biden won the popular vote.
The blame for this degrading of all judicial nominees goes not just to Trump, but to Sen. Dan Sullivan and the rest of the Republican senators who have allowed this to happen. They never cross Trump and support his fantasy that Biden did not win in 2020.
Sullivan himself admitted in 2021 that Biden won and probably hopes that Trump never discovers the post-riot term paper inflicted on Alaskans in which Sullivan said, “I wish fervently that President Trump had accepted the results of the election. . .”
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Sullivan backed Reardon. Murkowski described his qualifications, of which there are many.
But speaking the truth about Trump is not one of them.
“During multiple interviews and conversations with Mr. Reardon, Senator Murkowski was impressed by his professionalism, judgment, and independence,” her spokesman said. “Based on those interactions and his record of public service in Alaska, she expects Mr. Reardon to demonstrate those qualities as a District Judge for Alaska should he be confirmed.”
Here is the Alaska Beacon coverage, the best account by any Alaska news organization.
If Reardon is approved, every court decision that he will make during the rest of his life that deals with matters of character, truth and facts—which is all of them—will be have to weighed against his inability to tell the truth about the 2020 election while testifying before the U.S. Senate.
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