The White House vowed Wednesday that it would push politics to the side as it finds nominees to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
“I can tell you that when it comes to our search process, we are going to set aside politics, and we are going to be focused on helping the president make a decision about who the best person in America is to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Earnest’s comments seemed to ring true in the wake of a press report that Obama was considering Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, to replace Scalia. However, Earnest declined to confirm whether Sandoval was being vetted, and said he didn’t want to get into a “rhythm” of replying to every report about possible nominees.
Earnest also repeated that Senate Republicans’ promise that it wouldn’t consider any nominee from Obama shows the GOP is bringing an unacceptable level of politics into the process.
“I think we have seen an unprecedented attempt to inject politics into this situation,” Earnest said. He added that the GOP’s attempt to thwart any nominee is “inconsistent with the expectations of the United States Constitution.”
“It’s also inconsistent with the expectations of the American people,” Earnest added. “The president will do his job, and in fact, his team is already hard at work.”
“The American people expect that the United States Senate will do their job, and right there you have members of the United States Senate suggesting they’re not going to do their jobs for the next 11 months,” Earnest said. The selection is “a process that will be carried out seriously, and that places constitutional responsibilities above narrow political responsibilities.”
