‘We’re going to clean the plate’ on judges, McConnell says UN-recognized Libyan PM backs down on a decision to resign

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed Friday to continue confirming both U.S. district and circuit court judicial nominees through the lame-duck session and right up to the end of the 116th Congress, which must adjourn Jan. 3.

“We’re going to run through the tape. We go through the end of the year, and so does the president,” McConnell said Friday on the show of conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “We’re going to fill the 7th Circuit. And I’m hoping we have time to fill the 1st Circuit as well.”

The 7th Circuit seat opened up after the Senate elevated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in a truncated nomination process that culminated in her confirmation in the Senate on Monday. The other seat, on the 1st Circuit, opened after the death Monday of Juan R. Torruella, 87, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan.

After the vote on Barrett’s confirmation, McConnell teed up a Nov. 9 vote on the nomination of James Ray Knepp II to be a judge for the Northern District of Ohio. More than two dozen nominations for lifetime appointments remain pending.

After McConnell’s blockade of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees from 2015 through 2016, and the demise of the 60-vote filibuster threshold for nominees,

TRIPOLI, Libya — Fayez Serraj, the prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognized government, said he has backed down on a decision to hand over power by the end of October to avoid creating “a political vacuum” in the country.

Ghaleb Al- Zaqlaly, the spokesman for the Presidency Council, confirmed Friday evening that Serraj “has answered calls and backed down on his resignation which he has announced before.”

The spokesman said that the head of the Presidency Council hopes that “the dialogue committee will assume its historical responsibility away from personal and regional interests … so that (the) country can overcome the current crisis in peace and harmony.”

Serraj announced in September his intention to transfer his powers to the executive authority by the end of October.

“I declare my sincere intention to hand over the tasks of power to the coming executive authority in a time no later than October,” Serraj said in televised speech Sept. 17.

Serraj is the head of the Tripoli- based Presidency Council, established by a U.N.-brokered political agreement signed in December 2015. The council presides over a government in Tripoli, with Serraj serving as prime minister.