McConnell on Lame-Duck SCOTUS Hearing: No Way

The leader of the Republican-controlled Senate is ruling out the idea of considering President Obama's Supreme Court nominee after the November election, as one GOP colleague has suggested. "I can't imagine that a Republican majority Congress in a lame duck session after the American people have spoken would want to confirm a nominee opposed by the NRA, the NFIB, (and who) the New York Times says would move the court dramatically to the left," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN. "This nomination ought to be made by the next president."

That talk had come up in the event the presidency went to a Democrat—say, Hillary Clinton—who might nominate someone more liberal than Obama's centrist pick, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, reports the AP. McConnell has stood firm in saying the Senate would leave the pick to the next president, and when asked if he was ruling out any sort of lame-duck scenario, he responded, "Yes." Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake has raised that scenario. (More Merrick Garland stories.)