Graham: GOP has votes to confirm Ginsburg replacement before election

by WorldTribune Staff, September 22, 2020

Senate Republicans have enough votes to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: ‘After Kavanaugh, everything changed with me. They’re not going to intimidate me, Mitch McConnell or anybody else.’ / C-SPAN

“We’ve got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg’s replacement before the election,” Graham said on Monday’s broadcast of Fox News’s “Hannity”.

“We’re going to move forward in the committee. We’re going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election. That’s the constitutional process. After Kavanaugh, everything changed with me. They’re not going to intimidate me, Mitch McConnell or anybody else. … The nominee is going to be supported by every Republican in the Judiciary Committee, and we’ve got the votes to confirm the judge — the justice on the floor of the Senate before the election. And that’s what’s coming,” Graham said.

In one of a series of tweets following the passing of Ginsburg on Saturday, Graham said “The two biggest changes regarding the Senate and judicial confirmations that have occurred in the last decade have come from Democrats.”

The two changes:

• “Harry Reid changed the rules to allow a simple majority vote for Circuit Court nominees dealing out the minority.”
• “Chuck Schumer and his friends in the liberal media conspired to destroy the life of Brett Kavanaugh and hold that Supreme Court seat open.”

“In light of these two events, I will support President @realDonaldTrump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg,” Graham concluded.

Meanwhile, Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said Tuesday he would support a floor vote to replace Ginsburg, essentially clinching consideration of Trump’s nominee this year.

Two GOP senators have indicated they would like to wait until after the November election, but with Romney’s vote in a 53-seat Republican majority, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now has the votes he needs to move forward with a nominee.

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,” Romney 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.”

Trump tweeted Tuesday that he plans to announce his nominee on Saturday. Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa are seen as the top contenders.


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