Grassley Indicates He Supports Moving Forward on Trump Supreme Court Pick: Unlike 2016, No ‘Ambiguity’ in 2020
Senator Chuck Grassley, who was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Republicans block then-President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, was asked back in July about potentially taking up vacancy.
At the time Grassley said, “I would not have a hearing on it because that’s what I promised the people in 2016.” He also said, referring to now-Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham, “I would have to tell him that I wouldn’t have a hearing. But if he decides to have a hearing, that’s his decision.”
Graham is moving forward with the nomination, and Grassley has now put out a statement indicating he supports the Senate acting on President Donald Trump’s nominee.
His new statement acknowledges his previous comments and says, “I’ve consistently said that taking up and evaluating a nominee in 2020 would be a decision for the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Senate Majority Leader. Both have confirmed their intentions to move forward, so that’s what will happen. Once the hearings are underway, it’s my responsibility to evaluate the nominee on the merits, just as I always have.”
The difference between 2016 and 2020, he says, is that “While there was ambiguity about the American people’s will for the direction of the Supreme Court in 2016 under a divided government, there is no such ambiguity in 2020.”
Grassley’s statement also goes after Democrats for “a long, sordid history of politicizing the courts and the confirmation process” and says, “So, make no mistake: if the shoe were on the other foot, Senate Democrats wouldn’t hesitate to use their Constitutional authority and anything else at their disposal to fill this seat.”
“The circumstances are different in 2020, where the American people elected a Republican President and Senate in 2016 and expanded the Republican Senate majority in 2018,” Grassley concludes.
Fellow Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, up for reelection this year, said in her statement, “Once the president puts forward his nominee for the Supreme Court, I will carry out my duty—as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee—to evaluate the nominee for our nation’s highest court.”
