Schumer: ‘Height of hypocrisy’ to vote on Supreme Court nominee this year

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said Wednesday that it would be the “height of hypocrisy” for Republicans to vote on a nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy before the November midterm elections.

Schumer said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should show consistency and respect for his own precedent by delaying Senate confirmation proceedings for Kennedy’s successor until 2019, when a new Congress is seated.

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“Millions of people are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the president’s nominee and their voices deserve to be heard,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

He said “anything by that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.”

Schumer: “Our Republican colleagues in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016: Not to consider a Supreme Court justice in an election year.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/GC3JcxFUp7

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 27, 2018

McConnell announced moments before that he plans for the Senate to vote in the fall on President Trump’s next Supreme Court nominee.

McConnell kept the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat vacant for more than a year after he died in February 2016.

The GOP leader blocked a hearing and vote on Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee at the time, arguing that voters should weigh in during the 2016 presidential election on the ideological balance of the high court.

The move allowed Trump to nominate now-Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court shortly after taking office in 2017.