McCain promises united front against any Clinton Supreme Court nominee

Sen. John McCain said he will unite with his Republican colleagues to block any potential Supreme Court nominee Hillary Clinton may offer if elected. 

{mosads}”I promise you that we will, we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton — if she were president — would put up,” the Arizona Republican told a Philadelphia radio station on Monday. “This is why we need the majority.” 

To win control of the Senate, Democrats need to pick up four seats on Nov. 8, or five if GOP nominee Donald Trump wins the White House, a goal they expressed confidence in achieving last week. 

McCain has long said he opposes voting on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland and believes the Senate should wait for a new president to make a Court pick. 

He also said he isn’t sure that Trump would be better at picking a justice than Clinton, the Democratic nominee. 

Asked in the Monday radio interview if the GOP nominee is the “superior guy” when faced with voting for Clinton because of the Supreme Court, the Arizona Republican said, “I don’t know because I hear him saying a lot of different things.” 

Trump has earned praise from some conservatives for floating roughly 20 names, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), as potential Supreme Court nominees should he win the White House. 

But other Republicans, including McCain, have raced to distance themselves from the nominee in the wake of multiple women accusing the GOP nominee of past sexual misconduct — allegations Trump and his campaign have strongly and repeatedly denied. 

McCain, who is comfortably ahead in his reelection bid, revoked his endorsement of Trump on Oct. 8, in the immediate wake of the release of a 2005 recording in which Trump discusses kissing and groping women without their consent. 

McCain referenced the tape during Monday’s interview, saying, “It’s not what he said, my friend, it’s what he said he did.” 

“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms, my friend, and frankly I have not heard comments like that,” he added.

McCain announced earlier this month that he would not vote for Trump or Clinton and floated that he could write in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) name. 

He knocked Clinton, the Democratic nominee, on Monday for her handling of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack as secretary of State, arguing she misled the families of the four Americans killed about the cause of the attack. 

“She lied to the parents of a dead American next to … his body,” he said. “I can’t think of anything worse than that.” 

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee also blasted Trump’s foreign policy plans. 

“What bothered me more than I can tell you is his statements about working with the Russians and the Iranians and [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad in order to take on” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

McCain used a portion of his Monday interview, which CNN published, to urge Pennsylvania voters to reelect his vulnerable colleague, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Toomey has distanced himself from Trump but has not said if he will support the GOP nominee.

He is in a tight reelection race against Democrat Katy McGinty, who is less than a point ahead in the latest RealClearPolitics poll average.