Politics

Lindsey Graham Backs Trump’s Push To Fill Ginsburg Seat

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) makes his opening statement during a committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 16, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
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Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham will support President Donald Trump’s push to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat before election day, he announced Saturday.

Graham’s statement was hit with criticism because of his comments in 2016 saying a SCOTUS justice should never be appointed in an election year. At the time he said his opponents should “use my words against me” if he ever reversed his position.

Graham now argues the situation has changed following the tactics Democrats resorted to in the battle to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“The two biggest changes regarding the Senate and judicial confirmations that have occurred in the last decade have come from Democrats,” Graham said on Twitter. “Harry Reid changed the rules to allow a simple majority vote for Circuit Court nominees dealing out the minority. Chuck Schumer and his friends in the liberal media conspired to destroy the life of Brett Kavanaugh and hold that Supreme Court seat open.”

“In light of these two events, I will support President Donald Trump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg,” he added.

Graham joins a number of Republican senators who have publicly backed Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s push for a confirmation. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle find themselves saying the exact opposite of what they argued regarding election-year SCOTUS nominations in 2016. (RELATED: Schumer, Waters Warn Republicans Not To Try To Fill Ginsburg’s Seat Before Election)

Democrats have had their words thrown back at them as well, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging Republicans in 2016 to move forward with President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, but now urging Republicans to hold off until after the election.

So far only one Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has confirmed after Ginsburg’s death that she won’t support nominating a replacement until after the election. She has not said she will vote against such an attempt, only that she would not vote at all.