The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee blamed President Obama’s executive actions and the “liberal courts” for creating a climate in which Republicans have little choice but to block Obama’s Supreme Court pick.
After attending a White House meeting with Obama and Senate Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said waiting until the next president is elected to fill the Supreme Court vacancy is the “fair and reasonable choice.”
“The American people deserve the right to be heard,” he said. “They made their voices heard in 2014 when they signaled they wanted a departure from President Obama’s policies by revoking the Democrats’ Senate majority and expanding Republican ranks in the House of Representatives.”
“Now, with the stakes as high as ever and the political season underway, we should hear from them again,” he continued.
The president’s attempts to circumvent Congress and issue executive orders, he argued, have led to a “growing feeling of isolation among Americans who feel left out by political elites,” he said.
“Executive orders and liberal courts are trampling on religious liberty and property ownership, for example, and snubbing the rule of law and endangering the right to keep and bear arms,” he said.
To back up his statements, Grassley cited a recent Gallup poll showing that the American people’s disapproval of the Supreme Court has jumped from 28 percent in 2009 to 50 percent in 2015.
“Whether everybody in the meeting today wanted to admit it, we all know that considering a nomination in the middle of a heated presidential campaign is bad for the nominee, bad for the court, bad for the process, and ultimately bad for the nation,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., emerged from the “very short” meeting with Obama and GOP leaders at the White House and tried to needle the GOP, saying he believed Republicans had decided to block a Supreme Court nominee until President Trump is elected.
“They think they are going to wait and see what President Trump will do I guess as far as the nomination is concerned,” Reid said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest followed up by saying Obama still believes the meeting was worthwhile to hold despite the lack of progress. He said the president takes seriously his responsibility to consult with the Senate before selecting a nominee and simply wishes the Republicans would engage in the process.
