Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Sunday defended his policy flip on a pre-election vote for a Supreme Court nomination.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Cotton pushed back there was any conflict in his position on the issue in 2016, when then-President Barack Obama, in the months before the election, asked for a Senate vote on his nominee Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy after Justice Antonin Scalia died.
At that time, Cotton said a vote on a Supreme Court vacancy would “deny the voters to weigh in on the makeup of the Supreme Court,” The Hill reported.
“You don’t see any hypocrisy between that position then and this position now?” Host Chris Wallace asked.
“Chris, the Senate majority is performing our constitutional duty and fulfilling the mandate that the voters gave us in 2016 and especially in 2018.”
“We are going to move forward without delay and there will be a vote on this nominee,” Cotton added.
“But to the point Donald Trump’s going to win reelection, and I believe Senate Republicans will win our majority back because the American people know that Donald Trump is going to put nominees up for the federal courts who will apply the law, not make the law,” Cotton added.
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