Lindsey Graham: Democrats Would Confirm Supreme Court Nominee if ‘Shoe Were on the Other Foot’

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote in a letter to committee Democrats on Monday that the committee would confirm their nominee if the “shoe were on the other foot.”

Graham said that he followed historical precedent that the Senate has followed for more than 140 years: that Congress’s upper chamber has not confirmed the opposite party’s nominee during an election year. He said:

When the American people elected a Republican Senate majority in 2014, Americans did so because we committed to checking and balancing the end of President Obama’s lame duck presidency. We did so. We followed the precedent that the Senate has followed for 140 years: since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee during an election year.

However, he charged that the Senate Democrats’ treatment of then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh had changed his view on the confirmation process; Graham said that Democrats hold a more aggressive standard towards Republican nominees than Democrat ones.

Graham said:

Lastly, after the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh I now have a different view of the judicial-confirmation process. Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it’s clear that there already is one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democrat president.

Given the Democrats’ double standard, Graham said that they would move forward with the confirmation of the president’s incoming Supreme Court nominee, charging that the Democrats would likely do the same.

“I therefore think it is important that we proceed expeditiously to process any nomination made by President Trump to fill this vacancy. I am certain if the shoe were on the other foot, you would do the same,” Graham concluded in his letter to Senate Judiciary Democrats.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.