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Declaration could put Iowa Republican at odds with Mitch McConnell Revealing a potentially contentious Republican chasm, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley told Fox News on Tuesday night that if he still leads the committee in 2020 and a Supreme Court seat becomes vacant, the panel would not consider a nominee. That could put the Iowa Republican at odds with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell signaled last week that he could reverse himself and consider what would be a third high court nominee for President Donald Trump should a vacancy arise in 2020. The Kentucky Republican famously blocked President...

The Senate on Wednesday defeated a Democratic measure to overrule President Trump’s expansion of non-ObamaCare insurance plans as Democrats seek to highlight health care ahead of the midterm elections. The Democratic measure would have overruled Trump’s expansion of short-term health insurance plans, which do not have to cover people with pre-existing conditions or cover a range of health services like mental health or prescription drugs. It was defeated on an extremely narrow, mostly party line 50-50 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voting with Democrats in favor of overturning the short-term plans. Republicans argue the short-term plans simply provide a...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is warning Republicans considering challenging President Donald Trump in 2020 that it would be “a waste of time.” The Kentucky Republican told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that that it would be “very, very difficult to unseat the president in the primary.” Republicans, such as retiring Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, are considering challenging Trump in 2020. McConnell said that “would be a waste of time frankly. But the people who would be likely to challenge the president would not be coming to me for advice.”(continued)

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that “nobody’s going to beat” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska despite her opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. In an interview with The Associated Press, McConnell disputed President Donald Trump’s prediction that Alaskans “will never forgive” Murkowski and that she’ll “never recover” politically after bucking her party on Kavanaugh. Murkowski voted against advancing Kavanaugh’s nomination and “present” on the final vote. “She’s certainly going to recover,” McConnell said. He pointed out that Murkowski won re-election as a write-in vote in 2010. “She’s about as strong as you can possibly...

Two events from the last two days stand out. The first came Monday night with President Trump’s forceful yet compassionate speech at the swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The president opened with an extraordinary apology on behalf of the country to Kav­anaugh and his family “for the terrible pain and suffering” they endured during the historically brutal confirmation process. He said the unfounded allegations violated fairness and “the presumption of innocence.” Trump also tenderly addressed Kavanaugh’s young daughters, telling them “your father is a great man, a man of decency, character, kindness and courage.” The event...

AFTER A 50-YEAR siege, the great strategic fortress of liberalism has fallen. With the elevation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court seems secure for constitutionalism — perhaps for decades. The shrieks from the gallery of the Senate chamber as the vote came in last Saturday, and the sight of that bawling mob clawing at the doors of the Supreme Court as the new justice took his oath, confirm it. The Democratic Party has sustained a historic defeat. And the triumph is President Trump’s. To unite the party whose nomination he had won, Donald Trump pledged to select his high...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a new interview that he may be willing to consider a Supreme Court nominee during the final year of President Trump's first term. “We’ll see if there is a vacancy in 2020,” McConnell said after Brett Kavanaugh was officially confirmed as the newest Supreme Court justice, according to The Associated Press.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is signaling that he is ready and prepared to move another Supreme Court nominee from President Trump through Senate confirmation – including during the the 2020 presidential election season, if another seat were to become available then. “We’ll see if there is a vacancy in 2020,” McConnell said in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation." McConnell famously blocked a Senate vote on former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination Merrick Garland two years ago, on the grounds that it was a presidential election year. When asked Sunday whether moving a Trump nominee in...

President Trump said Monday that he expects a lot of Democratic voters to support Republican candidates in the upcoming midterms because of how the party's lawmakers handled sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "The main base of the Democrats have shifted so far left that we’ll end up being Venezuela. This country would end up being Venezuela. I think a lot of Democrats are going to be voting voting Republican on Nov. 6," Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a law enforcement event in Florida. The president seized on the specter raised by...

You missed it. Made Wallace look stupid 10 minutes into the show. DVR the rerun tonight my friends.

Hidden by the rabid anti-Trump media, who were preoccupied with their role in reporting non-stop the coverage of the protesters who were paid to disrupt the hearings for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was a letter that Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley sent to the attorneys for accuser Christine Blasey-Ford. Chairman Grassley sent the letter on Thursday, the same day as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved for cloture to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate where a vote would them be taken (Friday) to open a 30-hour period of comment and consideration before the final confirmation...

Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Friday offered up a line of questioning for Democrats to use on President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Franken, who resigned in December after multiple allegations of groping women, said that if he were still in the Senate he would want to drill down details on a statement that Kavanaugh made this week when he was nominated. After being introduced by Trump during an event at the White House on Monday night, Kavanaugh thanked the president, saying, "Throughout this process, I’ve witnessed firsthand your appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary."...

...Under the regular order, the vote to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court will be at 10:30.

The cloture motion will “ripen” through Thursday and Friday morning until 1 p.m., the latest the cloture vote will likely be held. All 100 Senators may agree to cut the “ripening” period short and hold the cloture vote at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning, however, Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) policy director Rachel Bovard told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Basically, all the senators have to agree” to cut cloture short, Bovard said. “What is probably going on is they all want to go home. They have evening events or they have an afternoon event or whatever. They just want to have...

Shortened title. Full title: McConnell Puts Schumer in His Place – Denies Schumer’s Request For an All Senators Briefing on Kavanaugh FBI Report Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in his place Wednesday. Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer is doing everything he can to delay the Kavanaugh confirmation vote.

Once the White House receives the report, it will be sent to Capitol Hill for all 100 senators to review, Serfaty reported. Senators will be able to sit down and read the report in a secure location. It's unclear if the report will be made public. After that, the person to watch is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "He has been very clear that he intends to move very quickly on this, to essentially start the procedural wheels turning," Serfaty noted. If the report comes out tonight, he'll likely file a cloture vote, which will show what senators will vote...

Senate Republican leaders pressed on Tuesday to wrap up the confirmation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, seizing on word from the F.B.I. that it would complete its investigation into allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct as early as Wednesday. “We’ll have an F.B.I. report this week, and we’ll have a vote this week,” an emphatic Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, told reporters after the Republicans’ weekly policy luncheon. But Mr. McConnell’s promise was as much about bluffing as it was about confidence, giving the nomination an air of inevitability even as five...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) doubled down Tuesday on his vow to hold a vote by the end of the week on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, saying he was the victim of open “floodgates of mud and muck.” “One thing we know for sure: The Senate will vote on Judge Kavanaugh here on this floor, this week,” McConnell said during a floor speech in which he also dismissed some recent media reports about Kavanaugh’s decades-old behavior. His comments come as Democrats are pressing for a more expansive FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct...

‘The [Defamation] Suit Also Alleges Swetnick “Engaged In Unwelcome, Sexually Offensive Conduct” While At Webtrends And “Made False And Retaliatory Allegations That Other Co-Workers Had Engaged In Inappropriate Conduct Toward Her”’ Julie Swetnick By The Numbers One Defamation Suit Filed Against Her Involving Sexual Harassment Allegations In Oregon One Restraining Order Filed Against Her By Her Ex-Boyfriend In FloridaOne Sexual Harassment Lawsuit, Where She Was Represented By Debra Katz’s Law FirmTwo Tax Liens Filed Against Her, Totaling Over $100,000Three More Court Cases In Maryland That She Was A Party To  Swetnick Was Sued For Defamation By An Oregon Company And A Woman...

"The time for endless delay and obstruction has come to a close. Judge Kavanaugh's nomination is out of committee. We're considering it here on the floor and ... we'll be voting this week," McConnell said. McConnell's comments, made during a Senate floor speech, comes as the FBI has to wrap up its investigation into multiple sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh by Friday. GOP senators and aides have been careful not to pin down a specific timeline on Kavanaugh's nomination, arguing that the FBI could wrap up its work before the Friday deadline.