McConnell will move ahead with SCOTUS nom
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday that President Donald Trump’s positive COVID19 case underscores that the coronavirus is the biggest threat to the confirmation of the current Supreme Court nominee.
Democrats procedurally can’t do anything to stop a confirmation vote on the Senate floor before the Nov. 3 presidential election, McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
But with a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, and two Republicans already saying they opposed a confirmation vote for Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett so close to the election, McConnell has a thin margin for a vote.
“Our biggest enemy obviously is the coronavirus, keeping everybody healthy and well and in place to do our job,” McConnell said of the confirmation vote.
Barrett has tested negative for COVID-19, a White House spokesman said Friday
morning, adding that the Supreme Court nominee is tested daily.
McConnell suggested the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings, set to begin Oct. 12, could be done remotely, and said that some members have done their interviews and previous hearings remotely.
“This sort of underscores, I think, the need to do that, and every precaution needs to be taken because we don’t anticipate any Democratic support at all, either in committee or in the full Senate, and therefore everybody needs to be in an ‘all hands on deck’ mindset,” McConnell
said.
McConnell said his plan is for the nomination to come out of the committee on Oct. 22, “and we will be voting on the nominee very soon. I haven’t picked an exact point to bring the nomination up but it’s front and center for the American people.”