Donald Trump’s pending Supreme Court pick is already at risk of being dead on arrival as two key Republican senators have announced they will not attend Monday night’s unveiling at the White House.
According to MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins have confirmed that they will not be making an appearance at Trump’s announcement event.
The news comes after four red-state Democrats declined Trump’s invitation to attend Monday’s unveiling.
This likely doesn’t bode well for the White House as they hope to rush through the SCOTUS confirmation process ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
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Sens. Murkowski and Collins won’t be attending Trump’s #ScotusPick announcement tonight at the White House. pic.twitter.com/BaY7QoHrgS
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 9, 2018
Melber explains the key role that both of these Republican senators will play in the SCOTUS confirmation battle:
Another slice of breaking news here as we approach the two-hour countdown mark to Donald Trump announcing his Supreme Court pick. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, now also confirming she will not attend tonight’s event. That makes her the second Republican and a key moderate Republican vote to say she will not attend. Senator Murkowski adding in a statement that she skipped the last such event as well for Neil Gorsuch. In any event, these are two people that Donald Trump almost certainly needs to confirm his Supreme Court pick that he’ll announce tonight, and two of them will be absent at tonight’s event.
Without these two key votes, Trump’s pick will go nowhere
If Democrats stand united against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, as they should, the president cannot afford to lose any support from Republicans in the Senate.
But as Trump prepares to nominate an extremist who, among other things, opposes abortion rights, Sens. Murkowski and Collins appear to be putting distance between themselves and the pending pick.
Before the SCOTUS nominee is even named, these two key Republican senators are poised to deliver Trump an epic defeat in his effort to push the Supreme Court in a dangerous direction.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
