McConnell stands tall, but Grassley vows no Trump nominee in an election year, if he’s still chairman

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has already made up his mind about considering a Supreme Court nominee in 2020.

Merrick Garland looms in Grassley’s memory and the promise he made not to hold hearings for a Supreme Court nominee if a vacancy occurred in the final year of President Donald Trump’s term in office.

The Iowa Republican spoke with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum Tuesday, reflecting on Garland, former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings on Garland because of the upcoming elections that year.

“Merrick Garland is someone that a lot of people point to as the beginning of the most recent poisoning of this process,” MacCallum said. “If there is an opening on the court in the election year, in 2020, do you believe that the Senate should take up a nomination during that period?”

“If I’m chairman, they won’t take it up, no, because I pledged that in 2016, that if the ball is the same as it is — now if someone else is chairman of the committee, they’ll have to decide for themselves. But that’s a decision I made a long time ago,” Grassley replied.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a completely different view, however, telling Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that if a Supreme Court vacancy opened up in 2020, he would still consider holding hearings.

“We didn’t attack Merrick Garland’s background and try to destroy him, we didn’t go on a search and destroy mission,” he said, contrasting Obama’s pick with the way then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was treated.

“We simply followed the tradition in America which is that if you have a party of a different– a senate of a different party than the president you don’t fill a vacancy created in a presidential year,” he said. “That went all the way back to 1888.”

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Frieda Powers

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles