Senate Democrats could stall a Supreme Court nominee President Trump potentially names as a replacement for Brett Kavanaugh until 2020 if they flip the chamber, according to Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
Hirono, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Politico Tuesday her caucus could try to detail Trump’s attempts to appoint another justice to the court if they are deemed by Democrats in the Senate to be a conservative ideologue.
[Michael Avenatti: Pull the Kavanaugh nomination]
“I think we’ve had those kinds of vacancies before, and we certainly had over a one-year vacancy with Merrick Garland,” Hirono told the news outlet in a podcast aired Tuesday. “So, the world does not come to an end because we don’t fill all of the nominees.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took a veiled swipe at Democrats in the chamber by praising Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for following “standard practice and regular order” in addressing an allegation of sexual misconduct leveled at Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford.
McConnell prevented former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court candidate Merrick Garland from being considered by the Senate as part of his confirmation process.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly forcing himself on her in the 1980s at a high school party when she was 15 and he was 17. Kavanaugh has “categorically and unequivocally” denied the claim. The White House has stood by its nominee.
Kavanaugh will answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday during a public session, and Ford has also been invited to make an appearance.
