Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News that Senate Republicans should “roll in cots” and work around the clock to confirm President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees before Democrats take the chamber in January.
DeSantis made the remarks Wednesday night, Nov. 4, 2026, on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” with Laura Ingraham. He later posted about the appearance on X, writing, “Tonight I joined Laura Ingraham on Fox News.”
What DeSantis said
According to Fox News Digital’s live coverage of the interview, DeSantis urged Republicans to use the remaining lame-duck weeks — the period after Election Day and before the new Congress is sworn in — to clear Trump’s pending court picks.
- “I’d roll in cots to the U.S. Senate cloakroom. I’d have them work around the clock,” he said.
- He said Republicans should fill every available vacancy: “You cannot leave anything on the table.”
- He also criticized congressional Republicans on immigration, including H-1B visas and codifying executive orders: “There’s so many things that could have been done. They didn’t even attempt it, Laura.”
Why the clock is ticking
Democrats flipped the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms and are set to hold at least about 54 seats starting Jan. 3, 2027. That shift would give Democrats the power to slow or block Trump’s remaining judicial nominees.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks nominations, told USA TODAY that four appeals court judges and 18 district judges could still be confirmed in the lame duck. “The Senate has time to confirm most of these,” Tobias said.
WHBL, carrying a Reuters report, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the outgoing Judiciary Committee chair, scheduled judicial nomination hearings on back-to-back weeks starting Nov. 10, breaking from the panel’s usual two-week pace. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, expected to chair the committee under Democrats, said in a statement that Republicans and the Trump administration “gutted the committee’s oversight and confirmation authority” and called for “a hard reset on the nominations process next Congress.”
How Democrats have framed the fight
There was no immediate public Democratic reply specifically to DeSantis’s “cots” line. Broader Democratic messaging has focused on blocking Trump’s court picks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sept. 30 that Democrats wanted to take back the Senate “to not let Trump put such horrible justices, MAGA justices, on the Supreme Court and the lower courts,” according to USA TODAY.
DeSantis’s Ingraham comments are separate from his Tallahassee press remarks the same day calling the midterms close to an “extinction-level event” for Republicans. This piece covers only his Fox News push on judicial confirmations.
Sources: Fox News Digital; USA TODAY; WHBL / Reuters; Ron DeSantis on X
