Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, confirmed Tuesday that President Trump is still weighing who he will tap to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“For my part, I told the president that he made a very good start with his list of 21 widely respected and mainstream judges … I’m looking forward to learning who President Trump selects and the confirmation process ahead,” Grassley told Judiciary Committee staffers in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Grassley and Trump met at the White House late Tuesday afternoon, during which they discussed the nomination process the president’s upcoming Supreme Court nominee will face. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also joined the sit-down in the Roosevelt Room.
“Throughout the past year, I said that no matter who won the election, we would move the process forward with the new president’s nominee. And that’s what we’ll do,” Grassley said in the statement. “The consultation today with President Trump, Vice President Pence, Leader McConnell, Senator Schumer and Ranking Member Feinstein was necessary and a step in the right direction.”
Grassley described their conversation with Trump as “productive and frank.”
Trump’s Supreme Court pick, which he is expected to reveal next week, will need to gain at least eight Democrats’ approval in order to reach the 60-vote threshold for Senate confirmation.
Schumer has vowed to block the president’s nominee if he or she is not “bipartisan and mainstream,” a demand White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump will not capitulate to.
“The most important criteria is to pick someone who will adhere to the law and the Constitution,” Grassley said Tuesday. “They must be committed to following the law, not making the law.”
Trump stirred speculation that he would select former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor for the open seat after Pryor was spotted at Trump Tower earlier this month.
But the president is also said to taking a strong look at Colorado Judge Neil Gorsuch, who currently serves on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and was listed among potential candidates Trump’s team circulated during the campaign.
