Rush Limbaugh encourages Senate to skip hearings for Trump’s SCOTUS nominee

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh urged Senate Republicans to skip the confirmation hearing process for President Trump’s soon-to-be announced Supreme Court nominee and head straight to a floor vote. 

“I want the Judiciary Committee — that could be great if it were skipped,” Limbaugh said Monday on his daily radio program. “We don’t need to open that up for whatever length of time, so that whoever this nominee is can be Kavanaugh’d, or Borked, or Thomas’d. Because that’s what it’s going to be, especially when it’s not even required.”

Rush Limbaugh calls for Trump’s Supreme Court nomination to skip the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings and go straight to a floor vote pic.twitter.com/4jc33X3D0W

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 21, 2020

Limbaugh was referring to Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, who were confirmed in controversial hearings, and fellow conservative Robert Bork, who was not confirmed to the court.

President Trump is poised to nominate a new justice to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Senate would move quickly to consider a Trump nominee.

Democrats argue the decision on a Ginsburg replacement should wait until after the election, noting that Republicans made that argument when they refused to vote on President Obama’s pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.

Two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have said the vote should not take place until after the election. Four GOP senators would need to oppose an earlier vote or McConnell would have the support to go forward.