Lisa Murkowski becomes 2nd GOP senator to oppose pre-election Supreme Court vote

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Sunday became the second GOP senator to publicly oppose voting on a new Supreme Court nominee before the November election.

“For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election,” Murkowski said in a statement. “Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed.”

Murkowski joins Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, facing a tough re-election battle, in opposing taking up President Donald Trump’s forthcoming nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg died Friday at 87 from complications from pancreatic cancer.

“I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice [Antonin] Scalia,” she continued. “We are now even closer to the 2020 election – less than two months out – and I believe the same standard must apply.”

A third closely watched GOP senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said Sunday that Republicans were pursuing exactly what Democrats would do if they were in power.

“No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican President’s Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year,” Alexander, who is retiring this year, said. “The Constitution gives senators the power to do it. The voters who elected them expect it.”

Murkowski’s statement comes as Trump this weekend pledged to quickly fill the now-vacant Supreme Court seat and nominate a woman to it. Amy Coney Barrett, a 48-year-old federal appeals court judge who was also on Trump’s list to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018, has emerged as a frontrunner.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has promised a swift confirmation process despite criticism from Democrats that he refused in 2016 to confirm then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland.

“Today it seems that Senator McConnell has lost his faith in the judgment of the American people and wants to hurry up and put somebody on the court,” former President Bill Clinton told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “And the president does too. So they — their position is ‘do whatever maximizes your power.'”

McConnell defended the move, saying that Republicans control both the White House and Senate, while in 2016 there was a power split.

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