Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that the Senate has more than enough time to confirm President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick before the end of the year, or even before Election Day.
McConnell vowed on the Senate floor Monday to plow ahead with President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. ‘We’re going to vote on this nomination on this floor,’ McConnell said Monday in a floor speech after eulogizing the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
McConnell pledged within hours of the announcement of Ginsburg’s death to hold a vote on her successor, and Trump is expected to name the person by the end of the week. Trump has repeatedly said his preference is for a confirmation vote before the election.
McConnell’s comments come just three days after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday from complications due to pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg sat on the Supreme Court for 27 years.
“Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, another iconic jurist, was confirmed 33 days after her nomination. For the late Justice Ginsburg herself, it was just 42 days. Justice [John Paul] Stevens’s entire confirmation process could have been played out twice, twice between now and Nov. 3, with time to spare. And Justice Ginsburg herself could have been confirmed twice between now and the end of the year with time to spare,” McConnell said.
The fight over the nomination has consumed Washington with just over six weeks to go until Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden face off at the polls. Recalling the bitter fight over Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, McConnell suggested an “even more appalling sequel” would be in store.
