Page 4 - ATODAY
P. 4
A4
U.S. NEWSThursday 10 March 2016
Reid pounds GOP united against Obama Supreme Court choice
DONNA CASSATA that we continue to harp
on the fact that all we’re
Associated Press asking people to do is their
job,” Reid told The Associ-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen- ated Press in an interview
in his Senate office on Tues-
ate Minority Leader Harry day.
The Democrat said he has
Reid is going out punching. talked to White House Chief
of Staff Denis McDonough
Never one to back down about a possible nominee,
but declined to disclose his
from a political fight, the recommendation.
Reid, a former middle-
five-term Nevada Demo- weight boxer and U.S.
Capitol police officer, is fa-
crat has been relentlessly mous — or infamous if you
talk to Republicans — for
pounding Republicans bare-knuckles politics. The
election-year fight over the
over their insistence that Supreme Court nominee
underscores that the stakes
President Barack Obama’s extend beyond the court
to the presidency and ma-
successor fill the vacancy jority control of the Senate.
At play is Reid’s own Ne-
on the Supreme Court. vada seat where Democrat
Catherine Cortez Masto,
Each day of the Senate the state’s former attorney
general and Reid’s choice,
session, the 76-year-old likely will face Republican
Rep. Joe Heck in a costly
Reid, who is retiring at the and competitive race.q
end of his term, stands on
the floor and rails against
the GOP, casting them as
obstructionists and lackeys
of presidential front-runner
Donald Trump. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., joined by, from left, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Senate
Minority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., talks to reporters on Capitol
“Republicans have not Hill in Washington following a closed-door policy meeting.
always been this irratio- (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
nal and vicious,” Reid said
Wednesday, calling the
GOP the “party of Trump, counter that the Ameri- the states. An Obama pick So no confirmation hearing,
can people should de- would tilt the ideological no vote, no meeting with
the caucus of Trump, the cide in November who will balance of what has been Obama’s pick to replace
choose the next justice, es- a mostly conservative court the late Justice Antonin
conference of Trump.” pecially with primary votes for decades, and the GOP Scalia.
already cast in nearly half base wants none of it. “I think it’s very important
Republicans, led by Majori-
ty Leader Mitch McConnell,
R-Ky., remain united. They
