Key Senate Republicans say they won't support a change to Senate rules that would allow President-elect Trump to quickly get his Supreme Court nominee confirmed, a sign that Trump may find it harder than he was hoping to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Trump's stunning victory helped Republicans maintain their majority hold on Congress' upper chamber, and set up the possibility that the GOP might change the rules to allow Supreme Court nominees to advance by simple majority, instead of the current 60-vote threshold.
A strong argument for imposing the so-called "nuclear option" is the expectation that Democrats will do all they can to block Trump's nominee, since Republicans blocked President Obama's Supreme Courtnominee, Merrick Garland, for nearly a year.
But an ongoing Washington Examiner survey of Republican senators shows that Trump may have a hard time convincing them to blow up decades of Senate rules. Republican Sens. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have all said they would not support a change.
"Rules changes come back and bite you," Roberts told the Examiner in an interview. "It's just better to follow [former Sen. Robert] Byrd's advice."
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04.29.2024