Sen. Ted Cruz slammed President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland on Wednesday, using the nomination as an opportunity to dig at GOP rival Donald Trump.
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Obama nominated Garland to the Supreme Court earlier this morning, arguing that the 63-year-old chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is “the right man for the job”.
President Obama has said numerous times that it is his constitutional duty to nominate a replacement for Scalia.
“When I’m standing next to the President and he announces my nomination, I actually think it will feel a little bit like an out of body experience”, Garland said in his introduction video.
“I feel I would want to explain my position to the nominee”, she said.
Hours after Scalia’s death in West Texas, Senate Republicans vowed to block any nominee from Obama, who is rounding out the a year ago in his second presidential term. Garland, now the chief judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is widely respected by both Republicans and Democrats.
The appointment to the US Supreme Court is made for lifetime, so the confirmations do not come easy.
“No one is better suited to immediately serve on the Supreme Court”.
“This has never been about who the nominee is”.
Republicans could face a Clinton victory in November and a Democratic majority in the next Senate, giving the new president a chance to pick a younger and more liberal justice. In fact, it has been nearly a century and a half since a Supreme Court vacancy occurred and was filled in an election year when the White House and Senate were controlled by different parties.
If confirmed, Garland would replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died of natural causes during a hunting trip to Texas in February. “I will oppose this nomination as I firmly believe we must let the people decide the Supreme Court’s future”.
Kirk says it’s the Senate’s “constitutionally defined role to provide advice and consent” and that’s “as important as the president’s role in proposing a nominee”.
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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News minutes before the announcement that neither he nor his colleagues would not support the nomination or allow it to go forward.
