Republican Rep. David Jolly — a candidate for the Senate from Florida — said Monday that he believed that Merrick Garland, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, deserved a hearing and a vote before Obama leaves office, but added that he believed Garland should be rejected in a Senate vote.
“I do think he should have a hearing and I would like to see a vote, because I think he would be voted down,” Jolly said at a debate with Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), one of the Democrats running for the Senate seat, hosted by the Open Debate Coalition.
Jolly said rejecting Garland on the basis of his record on the Second Amendment or labor unions does not count as obstruction.
“That’s actually the proper exercise of the Senate’s Article I authority. If they bring it up for a vote, vote him down,” Jolly said. “Ask the President to nominate a second person, one that could meet approval of Republicans in the United States Senate, because what the president has to accept is Republicans currently control the United States Senate and they have the constitutional prerogative to vote a nominee up or down.”
He added that if he were currently in the Senate, he would meet with Garland.
