Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he will not commit to holding hearings for a Supreme Court nominee picked by President Joe Biden if Republicans win a majority.
The Kentucky Republican was asked by Axios’s Jonathan Swan during a live interview if he would commit to holding hearings should there be a vacancy in 2023 and he is again the majority leader.
McConnell replied that the question was hypothetical, and he argued it “puts the cart before the horse.”
Expressing optimism about Republicans’ chances of winning a majority, McConnell argued that working with Republicans in Congress would force the president to “be the moderate he campaigned as.”
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“I’ll be interested in working with the president when he’s willing to be a moderate,” McConnell said. “But with regard to personnel and the other things that were involved in, I’m not going to signal how we’re going to approach it.”
Swan asked if McConnell was “suggesting that you are developing an argument for not holding hearings on a Supreme Court nominee if it’s not an election year.”
“I’m suggesting that I’m not going to answer your question,” McConnell replied.
McConnell famously declined to hold hearings for then-President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016, arguing that the Senate should not fill the vacancy left by the death of the late Justice Antonin Scalia in an election year. After Donald Trump was elected, Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed instead. McConnell did hold confirmation hearings for Trump’s nominee Justice Amy Coney Barrett shortly before the 2020 election.
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McConnell was then asked about his “ruthless style of politics.” He joked he had no idea about the reputation.
“My wife thinks I’m a really nice guy,” McConnell said.
