Sen. Rand Paul is playing his role in the confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to maximum advantage, amid a tight numbers game for Republicans in the Senate and the possibility of the GOP losing the chamber in the November elections.
"I am honestly undecided," the two-term Kentucky Republican told Politico in an interview published Monday. "I am very concerned about his position on privacy and the Fourth Amendment.
"This is not a small deal for me. This is a big deal.
"Kavanaugh's position is basically that national security trumps privacy," Paul said. "And he said it very strongly and explicitly.
"And that worries me."
With Republicans holding a 51-49 majority in the Senate, and Sen. John McCain in Arizona for brain cancer treatment, Paul becomes critical in Kavanaugh's confirmation, Politico reported.
Paul, 55, has also been more publicly critical of Kavanaugh than two other Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
He also faces the dilemma of going against President Donald Trump on such a key vote and the possibility Democrats could retake the Senate in the fall and reject all of the president's nominees.
"Wouldn't you rather have Kavanaugh than Ruth Bader Ginsburg?" Paul posed to Politico. "He's probably good on economic liberty and overzealous regulation and things like that.
"So, I don't want to have it sort of in a vacuum.
"I'll have to weigh that versus other aspects that he may be a lot better than a Clinton appointee."
Some Republicans, however, are openly endorsing Kavanaugh, a federal appellate court judge in Washington, in hopes of swaying Paul's support.
"There's no doubt that Rand's concerns about privacy and the Fourth Amendment are longstanding and genuine and existed long before this nomination," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Politico. "And I share many of those concerns."
However, "I think the body of Judge Kavanaugh's work merit confirmation," he said.
Paul was elected to the Senate in the first Tea Party wave in 2010, with Cruz coming along on the second wave two years later.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, also of Texas, said: "To me, the best guide of what the likely outcome will be what happened with [Justice Neil] Gorsuch."
Paul backed Gorsuch in an April vote.
"They're different human beings for sure, but they have similar experience and judicial philosophy," Cornyn said.
But for now, Republican leaders are not pressuring Paul to support Kavanaugh, Politico reports.
"I hope he's gettable," said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. "I hope in the end he'll be there.
"He's somebody who's obviously going to come to his conclusions on his own."
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