McConnell: Senate Will ‘Withhold Consent’ For Obama’s SCOTUS Nominee

On NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie offered a 35-second news brief on the past Biden comments.

“My view, and I can now confidently say the view shared by virtually everybody in my conference, is that the nomination should be made by the president the people elect in the election that’s under way right now”, McConnell told reporters after emerging from a closed-door meeting with GOP senators this week.

The Republicans’ action is certain to have repercussions, not only in the presidential race but in congressional contests where vulnerable Senate incumbents in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire face tough Democratic challengers. It is therefore increasingly likely that the Biden-Schumer-McConnell tradition of waiting for a presidential election will hold.

“There’s been a basic consensus, a basic understanding, that the Supreme Court is different”.

The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday ruled out confirmation hearings for any U.S. Supreme Court nominee from President Barack Obama, aiming to slam the door on his ability to name a justice who could change the court’s balance of power.

JAN CRAWFORD: Well, good morning.

In other words: who are you going to believe?

The Kentucky Republican acknowledged that Obama is within his rights to nominate a replacement for the late Antonin Scalia but said Republicans controlling the Senate would exercise their rights.

If the White House wants to fire back, it might point to Biden’s insistence that if a vacancy on the court arises in the summer or fall of an election year, the Senate should not act.

“To delay the consideration of a nomination for nearly a full year would be nothing more than the cynical politics that people in ME and across the country are exhausted of”, said King on February 16.

“I would not, precisely because of Vice President Biden’s record when he served on the Judiciary Committee”, Earnest said. His chosen path – no votes, no hearings, not even a courtesy call – appears created to dampen media coverage of any nominee. However, the White House has consistently said that the president intends to announce a nominee in the coming weeks. – Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, on the Senate floor in 2005.

Separately, Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican behind McConnell, said, “Correct”, when asked by Reuters whether the path forward on any Obama nominee would be to deny that person a committee hearing. And Republicans, who were in the Senate minority, cried foul.

McConnell didn’t elaborate on any ideas the committee might have but is expected to address the issue later Tuesday. – McConnell, now majority leader, in a statement after Scalia’s death. Until the vacancy is filled, the court will operate with eight justices: four regarded as liberals and four regarded as conservatives. He said Democrats never did what the Republicans are doing, noting that he and other Democrats declined to filibuster Justice Clarence Thomas and allowed Alito on the court although a number of them opposed him.