Prominent conservatives lobby Donald Trump to follow Ted Cruz’s lead and promise he’d nominate Sen. Mike Lee to the Supreme Court if he’s elected president.
Reports The Washington Post:
As President Barack Obama traveled to the University of Chicago on Thursday afternoon to deliver a speech calling for Merrick Garland’s confirmation, Senate Republican leaders are expressing confidence they can hold firm through the November election in refusing to grant Garland even a hearing. If Hillary Clinton wins in November, there will be pressure to quickly confirm Garland so that she could not appoint someone who is younger and more liberal. If she loses, then the next Republican president will get to nominate someone else.
While the rest of the mainstream media is preoccupied with the Garland battle, conservative luminaries are increasingly looking ahead to next year and quietly touting Lee as a potential nominee. Republican senators like this idea, and Democrats are figuring out how they’d respond.
Trump promises that he will soon unveil a list of 10 to 12 names from which he would nominate a Supreme Court justice. “I’m going to announce that these are the judges, in no particular order, that I’m going to put up,” he told The Washington Post last week. “And I’m going to guarantee it. … Because people are worried that, oh, maybe he’ll put the wrong judge in.” He said he’s “getting names” from Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation.
Lee “would be a very good choice, I think,” Sessions told The Washington Post.
