Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said people should not expect him to take his foot off the accelerator in appointing conservative judges to fill vacancies at federal courts across the country.
“My motto for the year is ‘leave no vacancy behind,'” McConnell said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Tuesday. “That includes district courts as well. So we’re a long way from being finished with doing court confirmations this year.”
The Kentucky Republican set up five more judicial nominations for votes last week after impeachment ended.
McConnell often boasts about the break-neck speed at which President Trump has nominated and the GOP-led Senate has confirmed judges to benches who agree with them ideologically. The right-leaning justices, Republicans hope, will aid Trump’s political efforts on border security, religious freedom, and redistricting in key election states.
Among Trump’s triumphs are two conservative additions to the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Overall, Trump is nearing 200 judicial nominations confirmed under his administration.
Democrats have criticized McConnell for blocking the nomination of former President Barack Obama’s last Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, in 2016. McConnell at the time said it would be inappropriate for the Senate to consider a judicial nominee in an election year and that “the American people should have a say in the court’s direction.”
