WATCH: GOP Senators Push Tucson Judges In Today's Confirmation Hearing; READ Their Questionnaires

Both Pima County judges recently nominated by President Donald Trump to the U.S. District Court bench in Tucson received their confirmation hearings today, and both were questioned more closely by Republican Senators than their Democratic colleagues.

Judges Scott Rash and John Hinderaker were introduced to the committee by Arizona Senators Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema, respectively. Each judge later took three minutes to introduce family and friends, and to thank colleagues. (Judge Rash getting choked up with emotion.)

But, the fun did not begin until Senators had their opportunities to question the nominees. Freshman Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) opened by grilling Judge Hinderaker about his views on the Second Amendment; the back and forth went on for a couple of minutes before the nominee noted that his experience as a litigator was in the civil arena and that he has not litigated (or, judicially handled) any Second Amendment cases. (The exchange begins at 2:05:07 in the video.)

Both judges received softball questions from Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) - Judge Rash devoted much time and effort as an attorney to helping the homeless population in Tucson receive proper legal representation, and Judge Hinderaker answered a pair of questions about how his 20 years in private practice prepared him for handling judicial matters, and how he approaches sentencing those convicted of crimes in his court. (Those begin at 2:13:19 and 2:09:38, respectively.)

The hearing (for Arizona's nominees, anyway) wrapped up with Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) throwing an odd hypothetical at Judge Rash. The three minute discussion about how the latter would handle a case of a transgendered inmate asking for hormone treatments was hard to watch, although at least Judge Rash's emotions did not get in his way. (The exchange runs from 2:21:05-2:24:00.)

The introductions by Sens. Sinema and McSally begin at 0:31:38, with each injecting a little bit of humor. The latter did thank the former for working with her office on the nominations.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also (finally*) released the extensive questionnaires that each nominee is required to complete before the hearing. Not many surprises came out of them - last year, Judge Hinderaker joined the Arizona Women Lawyers Association and Judge Rash joined the Federalist Society.

Perhaps the one eye-opener is that it was Sen. Sinema's office that initially recruited Judge Hinderaker for this nomination this past May/June. In fact, his answer about the process does not include any contact with Sen. McSally or her office.

Judge Rash was initially vetted by then-Sen. Jeff Flake, and was also interviewed by the late-Sen. John McCain. After being approved as a potential nominee by the White House in September 2018, he has met with interim-Sen. Jon Kyl, and both current Arizona Senators.

Here is the hearing. In addition to the time stamps noted above, Judge Hinderaker's opening remarks are at 1:48:50 and Judge Rash's at 1:55:19.

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* "AZ Law" has requested the questionnaires from the Committee multiple times, and was told that if they were not posted, they had likely not been received. They were posted within the past 24 hours, and the hearing on these nominees was announced Monday.

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