Key Republicans vowed on Thursday that if their party retakes control of the Senate after the 2022 midterms, radical left-wing Supreme Court nominees won’t be put on the nation’s highest bench.
The pledges come after Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson was confirmed — with three GOP defections — to SCOTUS to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
She was considered by most Republicans to be far too extreme left to support.
“If we get in charge of the Senate in … 2023, we have a majority, I can promise you nominees like this will not make it through,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at a press conference.
“It’s not that there won’t be any more judges. But I promise you that if we were in charge — and we had a say — it would be somebody less extreme filling this seat.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the former GOP Senate whip and current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee with Graham, did not rule out confirming a Biden Supreme Court nominee in 2023, but he also did not commit to doing so, Fox News reported.
He also said any potential Biden nominee would be done in consultation with the GOP majority.
“I think the Supreme Court’s sort of a unique situation. But, of course, you’re familiar with the Scalia seat, and I think a lot of it has to do with the timing,” Cornyn told Fox News Digital.
“And one of the things I can guarantee you though, there’ll be a negotiation that will determine who that nominee will be. And so that’s the one big change,” he added.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said all of Biden’s nominees, including those for the Supreme Court, would be affected by a Republican majority.
“I think if we see a Republican majority in the Senate, it will have a very significant, moderating effect on the Biden administration’s nominees — not just to the Supreme Court, but to the federal courts and to the administration,” Cruz said.
“The first year and a half the Biden administration consistently has gone hard left. It has been the extreme radical left that has set the agenda,” Cruz noted.
“We can expect substantially more scrutiny of Biden nominees across the board. And one would hope that will cause a moderating influence within the administration not to put up extreme nominees outside the mainstream,” he said.
Fox News added: “The comments came shortly before the Senate voted 53-47 to confirm Jackson to the Supreme Court, with three Republicans voting for her. Those Republicans were Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Mitt Romney, R-Utah.”