CONGRESS
Romney backs vote on Supreme Court nominee,
clearing way for Trump
The announcement means Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has enough votes to move forward with Trump's pick.
Romney supports holding a vote on next Supreme Court
nominee
By BURGESS
EVERETT
09/22/2020
09:50 AM EDT
Updated:
09/22/2020 06:57 PM EDT
Sen. Mitt
Romney said Tuesday he would support a floor vote to replace the late Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, essentially clinching consideration of President Donald
Trump’s nominee this year despite the impending election.
Just two
Republican senators have asked for the party to put the brakes on the
confirmation. And with a 53-seat majority, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) now has the votes he needs to move forward with a nominee.
The move is
a blow to Democrats’ hopes of keeping the seat vacant for the next president,
potentially their nominee, Joe Biden. But Romney said he had no qualms about
Democrats' charges of hypocrisy or about strengthening the high court’s
conservative majority.
“My liberal
friends have over many decades gotten very used to the idea of having a liberal
court, but that's not written in the stars,” the Utah Republican told reporters
after this decision. He called it “appropriate for a nation that is …
center-right to have a court which reflects center-right points of view.”
Given his
criticisms of Trump and vote to remove him from office during the impeachment
trial earlier this year, there was some question about where Romney would come
down on a Supreme Court nominee. And though Romney’s position doesn’t mean
Trump’s yet-to-be-named nominee will definitely have the votes to be confirmed,
it does mean McConnell and Trump can move forward without delay.
Trump
tweeted Tuesday that he plans to announce his nominee on Saturday; Amy Coney
Barrett and Barbara Lagoa are seen as the top contenders. A meeting Trump had
with Barrett on Monday went very well, according to a Republican close to the
White House. "Trump thought she was very smart, very prepared, held
herself with lots of dignity and poise," the person said. Trump plans to
meet with Lagoa on Friday.
Senate
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee met midday Tuesday to discuss different
scenarios for how quickly they can process the nominee. No final decision was
made, but a hearing could take place starting the week of October 12, according
to a GOP aide. Around the same time as Trump's tweet, Republicans also decided
to wait to announce their schedule until Trump makes his pick, said Sen. Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.).
GOP leaders
are still mulling whether to try to fill the vacancy before the election or
wait until a lame-duck session, but the prevailing view in the party is to move
as quickly as possible.
“People are
very supportive of the idea of moving forward. In terms of the timing, that’s
still up in the air,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “Speaking
for me personally? Yes. I think it would be a good idea for us to move forward
[before the election]. But obviously, we have a lot of different members who
might have different positions.”
Trump and
some Senate allies are pushing a preelection confirmation, though leaders are
noncommittal about timing. Thune said it was McConnell’s decision. Romney said
he had no preference on timing but also no qualms about conducting a
confirmation either before or after the election.
Senate
Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted Tuesday that Trump's
nominee would be confirmed before the election and said he would "keep the
process like we had it before" when asked about the length of the
confirmation hearing. It would a lightning-fast confirmation by Senate
standards and occur exceptionally close to the election.
"My
sense is that he is going to wait until there's an announcement, and then he's
going to make a final decision" on timing, Hawley said.
Other
potential swing votes, like Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Chuck
Grassley of Iowa, said on Monday evening they do not oppose considering a
nomination this year. Only Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of
Maine have said the seat shouldn't be filled this close to the election, and
without Romney taking that view there’s scant possibility of keeping the seat
vacant this year.
Romney said
he was merely following the law in making his decision to allow consideration
of Trump’s nominee rather than taking a position based on the recent blockade
of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, during the
2016 election. Because the opposition party controlled the Senate in 2016,
Romney said, Democrats’ arguments about that move being unfair did not weigh on
his decision regarding Ginsburg’s replacement.
Because the
president’s party controls the Senate this time around, Romney said it was
reasonable for the GOP to move forward in considering Trump’s nominee in 2020.
“It wasn't
unfair because it was consistent with history. It was consistent with
precedent, it was consistent with the Constitution,” Romney told reporters.
“That the Merrick Garland decision was unfair, and so therefore it has to be
made up by doing something which also wouldn't make a lot of sense — which is
saying to President Trump you can't get your nominee, either — that just
doesn't follow.”
Democrats
took a different view. For the second day in a row, Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the floor to castigate McConnell and his
members. He read Republican quotes from 2016 defending the Garland blockade, throwing
them back in the GOP’s face four years later.
“That’s how
they justified the unprecedented blockade of President Obama’s Supreme Court
nominee. No vote during a presidential year because we have to let the people
decide,” Schumer said. “Now: ‘Whoops, didn’t mean it.’”
Marianne
LeVine and Nancy Cook contributed to this report.
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