President Donald Trump secured a big win this week when another Republican senator came out in support of holding a vote on the president’s eventual nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday at the age of 87.
Following the announcement of Ginsburg’s death last week, some Republican senators, including Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, said they oppose voting on a nominee before the November election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), however, has pledged to move forward with a Senate vote once Trump makes his nomination.
On Sunday, another Republican senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, expressed his support of McConnell’s plan, The Hill reported.
“Apply the same standard”
According to The Hill, Lamar said Sunday that “McConnell is only doing what Democrat leaders have said they would do if the shoe were on the other foot.”
“No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican president’s Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year,” he said. “The Constitution gives senators the power to do it. The voters who elected them expect it.”
But although Alexander defended voting for a SCOTUS nominee before November’s election, he stopped short of promising to vote for whoever Trump puts forward.
“I have voted to confirm Justices [John] Roberts, [Samuel] Alito, [Sonia] Sotomayor, [Neil] Gorsuch, and [Brett] Kavanaugh based upon their intelligence, character, and temperament,” the senator said, according to The Hill.
He went on: “I will apply the same standard when I consider President Trump’s nomination to replace Justice Ginsburg.”
Graham looks back
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) has also defended moving forward with a Senate vote, reminding the American people in a recent tweet of Democrats’ vicious treatment of Trump’s former nominee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“Democrats chose to set in motion rules changes to stack the court at the Circuit level and they chose to try to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s life to keep the Supreme Court seat open,” Graham wrote Sunday. “You reap what you sow.”
Capitol Hill Police attempted to maintain order as an angry mob of protesters camped outside of Graham’s home Sunday night, Fox News reported, apparently disgruntled by his position on replacing Ginsburg.
According to Fox, Graham was not at his home at the time and issued a statement in which he expressed regret for “the disturbance caused to his neighbors.”
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