Mitt Romney Supports Floor Vote For President Trump's Supreme Court Appointee

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced on Tuesday that he will support a floor vote for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick despite Senate Republicans denying a vote in 2016 for former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick with 200 days before an election.

“The Constitution gives the president the power to nominate and the Senate the authority to provide advice and consent on Supreme Court nominees,” Romney said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Accordingly, I intend to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the president’s nominee. If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications.”

With a 53-seat majority, Republicans now have the support to move forward with a nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday of pancreatic cancer after serving nearly three decades as an associate justice.

Only two Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — opposed the president's plan to nominate someone less than six weeks to go before the election, saying the vote should not take place until after the election.

“When you have the Senate, when you have the votes, you can sort of do what you want as long as you have it,” Trump said Monday.

There is a perceived rush by Republicans to nominate and confirm a new justice weeks before the Nov. 3 election. In 2016, Senate Republicans denied a hearing for Appellate Court Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, on the grounds the death occurred too close to the election and the seat should be left open until voters had their say.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Monday urged Senate Republicans to skip the confirmation hearing process and head straight to a floor vote.

"We don't need to open that up for whatever length of time so that whoever this nominee is can be Kavanaughed, or Borked, or Thomased. Because that's what it's going to be, especially when it's not even required," Limbaugh said, referring to the contentious hearings conducted for Brett Kavanaugh, Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. While Kavanaugh and Thomas were confirmed, the Senate voted down the nomination of Bork following raucous hearings challenging a long list of his federal appellate decisions and his role in the Watergate-era Saturday Night Massacre.

Trump said he plans to announce his choice Saturday.