After meeting with Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) distributed a memo to his fellow Senate Republicans on Wednesday, encouraging them to meet with Garland as well, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.
MARK KIRK distributed memo to his GOP colleagues at lunch today, urging them to meet w Merrick Garland and laying out issues they discussed
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 6, 2016
Kirk has bucked the party line by telling his colleagues to “man up and cast a vote” on Garland. And after the Illinois senator met with Garland last week, he said he would consider voting for Garland and chastised Republicans who have refused to meet with Obama’s nominee.
The senator’s Wednesday memo goes one step further by urging Republicans in the Senate to meet with Garland as well.
“I met with Judge Garland last week and discussed my priorities below. We had a positive conversation and I encourage you to meet with him,” Kirk wrote in the memo obtained by CNN. Kirk also described the issues he discussed in his meeting with Garland.
Here is memo from Kirk, who has been most outspoken in his caucus on Garland as he faces a tough reelect. Story TK. pic.twitter.com/yhJbD52BTk
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 6, 2016
Illinois Democrats have been pushing Kirk to call on Republican leaders in the Senate to consider Garland’s nomination. Following Kirk’s meeting with Garland, the Senate campaign for Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who is running for Kirk’s seat, said that Kirk wasn’t doing enough to advocate for hearings.
“Senator Kirk seems to expect extra credit for doing the bare minimum — in this case his job,” Duckworth’s campaign manager, Matt McGrath, said in a statement. “Instead of going through the motions, Senator Kirk should show leadership by putting pressure on McConnell and urge him to give an eminently qualified Illinois native a fair hearing followed by an up-or-down vote. If he doesn’t, Illinois families have every right to question Kirk’s sincerity and whether this is more election year posturing from a vulnerable candidate.”
Boozman ® AR met with Garland and told him, in essence, to go screw himself and the President who sent him. Is that the kind of meeting you’re talking about, MarkKirk?
Oh for pete’s sake, can Illinois just suppress the vote so poor Mark Kirk doesn’t have to demean himself like this?
I mean, at this rate, he’ll be less popular than Ted Cruz in the Republican Senate Caucus.
Nice try Mark.
But Tammy is still going to beat you in November, no matter how hard you try to pretend to be moderate during an election year.
His campaign’s internal polls must be scaring him.
This guy’s beginning to irritate me more than Inhoff or Cornyn or Sessions or Cruz. At least, they don’t pretend to be anything put evil.