For months, Republicans have said that they are refusing to consider anyone President Obama nominates to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court because they are simply following a (nonexistent) Senate tradition of blocking Supreme Court nominees in the final year of a president’s term.
But yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed the obvious: Republicans just want to hold the seat open to be filled by Donald Trump.
“On that sad day when we lost Justice Scalia, I made another pledge that Obama would not fill this seat,” McConnell said in a speech to the Republican National Convention. “That honor would go to Donald Trump next year.”
Trump, for his part, has pledged to pick anti-choice justices from lists compiled by right-wing groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.