Tim Kaine: Democrats Will Nuke Filibuster For Supreme Court Nominees If GOP Won’t Cooperate
Tim Kaine: Democrats Will Nuke Filibuster For Supreme Court Nominees If GOP Won’t Cooperate
Senate Republicans are already indicating they’ll block any potential nominee put forward by Hillary Clinton.
COLUMBUS, Ohio ¯ Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine warned on Thursday that his party would move to eliminate rules allowing a minority of Senate Republicans to block Supreme Court nominees should they refuse to consider those nominated by a future president Hillary Clinton.
Kaine was not predicting Clinton’s victory, though, during a sit-down interview with The Huffington Post at the Land Grant Brewing Company, he expressed confidence with where the election stood 11 days out. Instead, the Virginia senator was responding to recent remarks from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) indicating that they were prepared to leave the current Supreme Court vacancy open should Clinton end up winning, leaving only eight justices on the bench.
“I was in the Senate when the Republicans’ stonewalling around appointments caused Senate Democratic majority to switch the vote threshold on appointments from 60 to 51. And we did it on everything but a Supreme Court justice,” Kaine said. “If these guys think they’re going to stonewall the filling of that vacancy or other vacancies, then a Democratic Senate majority will say, ‘We’re not going to let you thwart the law.’”
READ MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tim-ka...
Senate Republicans are already indicating they’ll block any potential nominee put forward by Hillary Clinton.
COLUMBUS, Ohio ¯ Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine warned on Thursday that his party would move to eliminate rules allowing a minority of Senate Republicans to block Supreme Court nominees should they refuse to consider those nominated by a future president Hillary Clinton.
Kaine was not predicting Clinton’s victory, though, during a sit-down interview with The Huffington Post at the Land Grant Brewing Company, he expressed confidence with where the election stood 11 days out. Instead, the Virginia senator was responding to recent remarks from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) indicating that they were prepared to leave the current Supreme Court vacancy open should Clinton end up winning, leaving only eight justices on the bench.
“I was in the Senate when the Republicans’ stonewalling around appointments caused Senate Democratic majority to switch the vote threshold on appointments from 60 to 51. And we did it on everything but a Supreme Court justice,” Kaine said. “If these guys think they’re going to stonewall the filling of that vacancy or other vacancies, then a Democratic Senate majority will say, ‘We’re not going to let you thwart the law.’”
READ MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tim-ka...
