01.29.17

Leader McConnell on ABC’s ‘This Week’

'…to the extent they're trying to improve the vetting process, I think that's in order.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared on ABC’s ‘This Week’ this morning. The following are excerpts from his interview:

McConnell on President Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration

“…to the extent they're trying to improve the vetting process, I think that's in order. [W]e also need to remember that some of our best allies in the war against Islamic terrorism are Muslims.”


McConnell on President Trump’s Upcoming Nomination to the Supreme Court

“President Clinton in his first term had two Supreme Court nominees, Ginsburg and Breyer. There was no filibuster; no requirement for you to get 60 votes to consider them. President Obama had two Supreme Court nominees in his first term. There was no filibuster against them. We’re in the first term of a new president. What we're hoping is that our Democratic friends in the minority in the Senate, as we were during those same comparable periods under Clinton and Obama, will treat this nominee in the same way and give him an up-or-down vote. If cloture, that is if getting 60 votes is required, that happened with Justice Alito, a Democratic minority insisted on that, cloture was invoked. In other words, he was given the opportunity to have an up-or-down vote on the final nomination. So it’s way too early for me to tell you or anyone else what we might do. I think how this is handled depends on our Democratic friends.”

“Let me tell you what I do think we'll get- a really outstanding nominee who will be very hard to argue against because the president has been working on this for some time. I’m privy to some of the information about what's been happening and I think we're going to get a great nominee who will be very difficult to explain to the American people ‘we're not even going to let them have an up-or-down vote in the Senate.’”

McConnell on Russian Sanctions

“I’m opposed to lifting the sanctions against Russia. They were imposed because of their annexation of Crimea, their incursion into Ukraine and now we know they were messing around in our elections. I’m absolutely opposed to lifting sanctions on the Russians. If anything we ought to be looking at increasing them.”

Related Issues: Immigration, Judicial Nominations, Supreme Court, National Security