McConnell tells Kentucky audience he’d confirm new Supreme Court justice in election year

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would allow a vote to fill a Supreme Court vacancy if a justice dies in 2020, he told the Paducah Chamber of Commerce.

Three years ago, McConnell blocked a vote on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland. He argued the winner of the presidential election should make the appointment. When Trump took office, he nominated Neil Gorsuch who was approved by the Senate.

On Tuesday, McConnell was asked in front of the Paducah Chamber of Commerce what he would do if a Supreme Court justice died in 2020, another presidential election year. His answer, according to WPSD, is a reversal from his stance in 2016.

“Oh, we’d fill it,” McConnell said.

He said high court judicial confirmations are permanent, potentially affecting national laws for years..

“What can’t be undone is a lifetime appointment to a young man or woman who believes in the quaint notion that the job of a judge is to follow the law,” McConnell said, according to WPSD’s live stream. “That’s the most important thing we’ve done for the country, which cannot be undone.”

Responding Wednesday to McConnell’s remarks, Kentucky Democratic Party chairman Ben Self said it’s no surprise McConnell has changed his mind with a Republican as president.

“McConnell holds no beliefs sacred — they change as it becomes politically convenient,” Self said. “He’s the worst kind of politician; a self-serving hypocrite.”

McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said the majority leader has been consistent. If the Senate majority and the president are not of the same party in a presidential election year, a high court nomination should not go forward, McConnell has said. The last time approval was given under those conditions was in 1888 when Grover Cleveland was in office.

Nevertheless, McConnell yet again told listeners Tuesday that his decision to block Garland’s nomination was “the biggest decision I’ve made in my time in the Senate with the longest impact on the country,” according to a WPSD recording of McConnell’s comments.

McConnell officially launched his U.S. Senate re-election campaign in April. He does not have a challenger yet.

This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 9:12 AM.