The GOP senator says he’s on board with an election year confirmation for a Supreme Court nominee
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows stressed Tuesday that President Trump is looking for a Supreme Court nominee that will “uphold the Constitution,” as he praised Senate Republicans facing tough reelection battles who have lined up in support of moving forward with a potential Trump nominee.
When asked by Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo if there will be a vote before the election, Meadows said that it’s ultimately up to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell but that the White House is in daily communication with the Majority Leader.
“They’re all engaged and ready to get to work,” Meadows said of Republican senators. “And the President, as you had mentioned, plans to make that announcement this Saturday.”
But later in a gaggle with reporters, Meadows said that the timing remains “fluid” when asked if there will be an event held on Saturday for a potential announcement.
“We’ve not set up anything. Obviously, the President has talked about having an announcement on Saturday. The timetable and the plans are very fluid still and so there’s nothing been planned at this point,” he said.
When asked by CNN’s Joe Johns about potential political fallout for Republican senators over pushing forward with the SCOTUS nominee, Meadows projected confidence.
“Generally, Republicans like to confirm Republican nominees and so I don’t know that that’s generally considered a negative issue, obviously you’ve got a number of senators in very difficult races. But when you, I’ve found that when republicans vote, like republicans it normally works pretty well for them and. And so I’m going to leave those decisions up to Leader McConnell and those individual Republican senators,” he said.
Meadows, on Fox Business, also said: “I fully believe that we’ll have the votes, that they will be there, and whether it’s before the election or shortly after I’m confident that this person will get confirmed and be the next justice.”
Pressed by CNN on whether a potential nominee would be prepared for any upcoming hearings if the Senate moves quickly to push the nominee forward, Meadows said the White House would be “prepared.”
“It’ll be up to us to make sure that our nominee is prepared and it’ll be up to them to take the vote. We do know that there had been a very, very quick timeline. There has been a very quick timeline in the past for a number of justices who have been nominated and confirmed so I can tell you will be fully prepared to meet whatever timeline Leader McConnell decides to engage,” Meadows said.
