McConnell is dealt 3 aces
Sen. trio agrees to pre-elex vote
Three key Republican senators have said they will back a vote to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat ahead of the November presidential election.
Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Cory Gardner of Colorado joined Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander in backing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s effort to bring whomever the commander in chief nominates to a vote.
“No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican President’s Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year. The Constitution gives senators the power to do it. The voters who elected them expect it,” Alexander said in a statement Sunday.
In separate statements Monday night, Grassley and Gardner said they’d vote to approve a Trump-nominated jurist if they deemed that person qualified.
“I have and will continue to support judicial nominees who will protect our Constitution, not legislate from the bench, and uphold the law. Should a qualified nominee who meets this criteria be put forward, I will vote to confirm,” Gardner wrote in his statement.
Grassley, a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, added in a series of tweets that it’s his job to “review qualifications” of a nominee once a hearing is underway.
“That’s what I’ll do now,” he wrote. “I’ll vote based on her merits.”
The move by Grassley to back a preelection vote came as a surprise because he previously indicated he would support leaving a vacancy on the court if it opened up during an election year.
Gardner, meanwhile, faces a tough reelection race against former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.
The support of the three senators comes after two other Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — said they would oppose President Trump’s effort to replace Ginsburg before the election.
With his 53-47 Senate majority, McConnell can afford to lose three votes before needing Vice President Mike Pence to come in and cast a tiebreaking vote.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who famously voted to impeach Trump, is the only potential GOP holdout who might join Collins and Murkowski in opposing the confirmation.
McConnell vowed Monday to hold a vote on a Trump nominee prior to the election.
“President Trump’s nominee for this vacancy will receive a vote on the floor of the Senate,” he said in the chamber.
“We’re going to vote on this nomination on this floor,” he added.
Republicans in 2016 mounted an 11month blockade on a vote to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland to the court because it was an election year.