U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on Sunday shared his thoughts on U.S. President Donald Trump’s intent to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg died Friday.
Alexander also weighed in on U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) announcement that the Senate will vote on that nomination.
This, according to a press release that Alexander shared on his Facebook page.
“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. The Constitution gives senators the power to do it. The voters who elected them expect it,” Alexander wrote.
“Going back to George Washington, the Senate has confirmed many nominees to the Supreme Court during a presidential election year. It has refused to confirm several when the President and Senate majority were of different parties. Senator McConnell is only doing what Democrat leaders have said they would do if the shoe were on the other foot.”
Alexander said in the press release that he voted to confirm Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh “based upon their intelligence, character and temperament.”
“I will apply the same standard when I consider President Trump’s nomination to replace Justice Ginsburg,” Alexander wrote.
The White House said Sunday that Trump will announce his pick to replace Ginsburg in the “near future” but is declining to say whether the president will push for a Senate confirmation vote before Election Day.
Marc Short is the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. He says a confirmation vote before Nov. 3 is “certainly possible” because Ginsburg was confirmed within 43 days and currently it is 44 days out from the election.
But Short tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that the White House is leaving the confirmation timetable up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
When asked whether Trump considered Ginsburg’s dying wish for her replacement to be named by the winner of the November presidential election, Short said the White House and nation mourn her loss “but the decision of when to nominate does not lie with her.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected]. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A noble end from a failed senator?
Based upon his statement above, I say that Senator Alexander has it exactly right.