Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed Thursday that Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, will be confirmed by the Senate by the April recess, which begins April 8.
“We are going to be dealing with Judge Gorsuch the week before the April recess,” McConnell said before being pressed on the confirmation itself. “We’re going to confirm him before the April recess.”
McConnell’s remarks came during a Politico Playbook breakfast Thursday morning.
He also expanded upon his decision not to bring Judge Merrick Garland, former President Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia last year, up for consideration and argued that he would have looked “completely foolish” if he had. As he has since Scalia’s death, McConnell cited comments from then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1992, where he called for former President George H.W. Bush not to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year.
“I was prepared to take the heat because I knew that we would look completely foolish to allow the vacancy to be filled on the way out the door. So I was very comfortable with my decision, and fortunately, my colleagues backed me up and now we have this opportunity to put this great judge on the Supreme Court.”
Since his nomination, Gorsuch has made the rounds in the Senate, having met with more than 60 senators. His nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is slated for March 20.
