Susan Collins says she is voting against Coney Barrett confirmation to be ‘fair and consistent’

Foxnews, Susan Collins, R-Maine, took a veiled shot at her party’s leadership in the Senate on Sunday when she declared that she’d be voting against the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett into the Supreme Court.

“Ahead of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s departure, I said that, if a vacancy on the Supreme Court appear, the Senate ought to follow the precedent set four decades back and never vote on a nominee ahead of the presidential election.,” Collins said in an announcement.

She added: “Since this vote is happening before the election, I’ll vote against the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.”
Collins mentioned in her statement that her vote against confirming Coney Barrett into the country’s highest court isn’t intended as a slight against the jurist but rather is an issue of”being consistent and fair.”

The Maine Republican’s announcement appears to hit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s position to proceed forwards together with affirming Coney Barrett with only a week to go before the presidential elections. McConnell has attracted widespread criticism from Democrats and has been labelled a hypocrite depending on the treatment of former President Barack Obamas Supreme Court nominee and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Merrick Garland.

“You’ve got to return to 1880s to locate the last time a Senate controlled by a party different from the president filled a vacancy on the Supreme Court which was made in the centre of a presidential election season,” McConnell formerly told Fox News.
Collins, in her announcement, however, seems to be agreeing with McConnell’s detractors.

“If the Senate considers nominees to the United States Supreme Court, it’s essential that we act fairly and consistently, with exactly the identical set of principles, regardless of what political party is in power,” she explained. “That which I’ve focused on is being consistent and fair, and I don’t think it’s reasonable nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote ahead of the election.”
Regardless of Collins announcement, Republicans will have sufficient votes to affirm Coney Barrett into the seat if they meet Monday day to pick.

The other Republican that had been one the weapon, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, declared her support for Coney Barrett Saturday through a floor speech in the Senate.

Murkowski said she is compared to the Senate taking a Supreme Court nominee so near Nov. 3 election. Still, the senator said she lost that procedural struggle and she needs to appraise Barrett’s credentials to the seat.

“I’m a yes,” Murkowski said Saturday at a floor speech. “I don’t have any doubt about her wisdom. I don’t have any doubt about Judge Barrett’s judicial nature. I don’t have any doubt about her ability to do the job and to do it well.”

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