Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is distraught by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s latest comments about the Supreme Court.
The West Virginia centrist was quoted by Axios in responding to McConnell saying Thursday that he will not commit to considering a Supreme Court nominee picked by President Joe Biden if Republicans win a majority this year.
“Oh, that’s so wrong,” Manchin said. “I think that’s our responsibility. We take an oath of office to do our job. … I just hope he doesn’t mean that.”
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McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told Axios that a question about holding hearings for a vacancy was hypothetical, and he argued it “puts the cart before the horse.” He later told Fox News, when pressed on what a Republican majority would do next year, “I’m not going to announce what our agenda might be on appointments before we even become the majority. I hope we’re in a position to make a decision.”
Manchin voted in favor of Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed in a 53-47 vote Thursday. However, the high court maintains a 6-3 conservative majority, as former President Donald Trump had three picks end up as justices.
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Sure to fuel more tensions is the fact that McConnell, previously as Senate majority leader, declined to hold hearings for then-President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016, arguing that the upper chamber should not fill the vacancy left by the death of the late Justice Antonin Scalia in an election year.
Manchin has stood out as a Democrat who refuses to support liberals pushing to end the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court, arguing that such a move would betray the Senate’s purpose to work in a bipartisan way.
