As Senate Republicans harden their line on not considering the Supreme Court nominee President Obama puts forward, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that even a nominee put forward by the next president to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s spot might still face obstacles in getting confirmed.
Asked by a reporter at a press conference at the Capitol Tuesday whether he would commit to an up-or-down vote for the next president’s nominee, McConnell said, “No.” He added that he didn’t mean that a nominee would not be considered “at all.”
“What I am saying is, whoever the nominee is that comes up next year, will be considered by the Senate,” McConnell added. “What the procedures, the process would be, I don’t know. But at the beginning of a four-year term, the suggestion that the Senate of either party wouldn’t consider a nominee at all would not be correct.”
