Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, was among those interviewed by President Trump about the Supreme Court vacancy, his office said.
Conn Carroll, a spokesman for the senator, confirmed Trump interviewed Lee on Monday. Lee was in Utah at the time of the call, and the two discussed the senator’s interest in the nomination to fill Kennedy’s seat on the high court, Carroll told the Washington Examiner in an email.
The Desert News first reported Trump interviewed Lee.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump and Lee spoke on the phone Monday.
The president plans to announce his pick to succeed Kennedy on the Supreme Court on July 9. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday he had interviewed four candidates and planned to interview two to three more.
The meetings with Supreme Court contenders lasted roughly 45 minutes each, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
Sanders did not provide details at the time on who Trump interviewed, though reports indicate the president met with federal appeals court judges Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Amul Thapar, and Raymond Kethledge.
The president said he intends to choose his nominee to the Supreme Court from a list of 25 released by the White House. Trump first rolled out the list as a candidate during the 2016 presidential election, and Lee was added in September 2016.
Lee was elected to the Senate in 2010. He previously worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Salt Lake City and in private practice, with a focus on appellate and Supreme Court litigation.
His father, Rex Lee, was solicitor general under former President Ronald Reagan.
If nominated to the Supreme Court and confirmed by the Senate, Lee would serve alongside his former boss, Justice Samuel Alito, for whom he clerked on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
