McConnell Prepping Senate For SCOTUS Nominee Obstruction

Within hours of the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued an unapologetically partisan statement claiming he would do everything in his power to prevent a Senate vote on any nominee President Obama may put forth for the Supreme Court. “McConnell is trying to prevent a sitting president with 334 days left in office from naming a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, an unprecedented assertion of authority by the Senate and one that could alter the balance of power between the White House and Capitol Hill,” Politico reports. Leaving a Supreme Court seat vacant for at least a year – and possibly up to 15 months or more – would leave eight serving justices for the longest time since the Nixon era. Democrats are railing against McConnell, calling him “the greatest hypocrite ever,” and an “obstructionist.” In a Washington Post op-ed, McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote, “It is today the American people, rather than a lame-duck president whose priorities and policies they just rejected in the most recent national election, who should be afforded the opportunity to replace Justice Scalia.”