GOP presidential candidate John Kasich broke with Senate Republicans, arguing in a interview set to air Sunday that the lawmakers should drop their refusal consider Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
“Frankly they probably ought to all sit down and meet with the guy,” Kasich said in a interview set to air Sunday morning on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Some Senate Republicans, including most of the members facing tough reelection battles, have said they will meet with Garland. But most of the Republican senators have followed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s instruction to deny Garland one-on-one interviews, a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and a confirmation vote.
Republicans intend to block action on the nomination until next year, when they hope a Republican president could fill the seat vacated by the death last month of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans want to prevent the court the leftward shift on the court that would result from President Obama filling the seat.
Kasich seemed in the interview to support the Democratic argument that President Obama’s 2012 election should allow him to fill the Supreme Court seat during his term.
“Whoever gets elected president should be in a position to be able to pick, you know, who they want and the American people will either decide by voting for a Republican or Democrat what the makeup of the court is,” Kasich said in the CBS interview, which was taped Saturday.
When pressed, Kasich said he would consider nominating Garland, a moderate judge who President Bill Clinton first nominated to Washington’s powerful federal appeals court, to the high court. Garland previously won enthusiastic backing from Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee including former Chairman Orrin Harch, R-Utah.
“He received you know overwhelming support, I think even from Senator Hatch, so of course we’d think about it,” the Ohio Governor said.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., has broken with GOP colleagues to urge them to allow vote on Garland’s nomination.
“Just man up and cast a vote,” Kirk said.
