McConnell on ‘Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Shannon Bream on Fox News Channel’s ‘Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream’ yesterday to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy. See below for highlights or click here to watch the full interview.
On the Historical Precedent for Filling A Supreme Court Vacancy:
“Here are the facts with regard to the Supreme Court. There have been fifteen occasions where a President has nominated-- during an election year-- someone to the Supreme Court. In eight of those fifteen occasions, the President's party was the party of the Senate. And seven out of eight times they were confirmed, one time blew up in a scandal.
“What we had in 2016 was a time of divided government. You had the President-- a Democrat. The Senate-- Republican. Divided government. You have to go back to 1888 to find the last time a vacancy on the Supreme Court created during a presidential election was filled by a party different from that of the president. So this is entirely consistent with a history of handling Supreme Court vacancies in the middle of Presidential elections.”
On the President’s Nomination:
“By Saturday we will have an individual. The President said it's going to be a woman. She will be judged on her own merits by the American people. I'm confident he's going to make an outstanding nomination. The American people are going to take a look at this nominee and conclude, as we are likely to conclude, that she well deserves to be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
On Attacks from the Left:
“There's nothing inappropriate about filling this vacancy. Many Supreme Court vacancies have been dealt with in a shorter time frame than the time frame between now and the election or the time frame between now and the end of this Senate, which is at the end of this calendar year.
“There's nothing extraordinary about the situation, nothing unusual about the situation. They don't like what happened. I understand that. They've been block voting against all of our judicial nominees anyway. They are threatening to do one thing or another, but they were already threatening to blow up the Senate by getting rid of the filibuster, to admit two states: the District [of Columbia] and Puerto Rico. And they were already threatening to pack the Supreme Court.
“We've heard all these threats before. We intend to move forward, to exercise our responsibility and to vote on this outstanding nominee that we will get later in the week.”
On the Protests in Louisville:
“First of all, it’s very sad to see my hometown looking a lot like Portland. I think the American people can distinguish between peaceful protests on the one hand, constitutionally protected activity, and rioting, looting, violence and shooting police officers, which is what we have seen unfortunately in my hometown.
“I have total tolerance in the American people and the people of Kentucky. I have total tolerance for peaceful demonstration; zero tolerance for looting and violence and attacks on police officers, so it's extremely unfortunate.”
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