#Lindsey Graham supports Trump filling Supreme Court vacancy

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham reversed earlier statements on Saturday and said he will support “any effort” by President Trump to seat another Supreme Court justice.

The support came as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his GOP caucus to “keep your powder dry” in regard to filling the seat left vacant by Justice Ruth Bader GInsburg’s death on Friday.

Separately, Maine Sen. Susan Collins said, “The decision should be made by the president who is elected on November 3rd.”

In a series of tweets, Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “The two biggest changes regarding the Senate and judicial confirmations that have occurred in the last decade have come from Democrats.”

The first was when former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the rules to allow a simply majority, rather than a super majority, confirm Circuit Court nominees. The second, Graham said, was when Democratic New York Sen. “Chuck Schumer and his friends in the liberal media conspired to destroy the life of Brett Kavanaugh and hold that Supreme Court seat open.”

“In light of these two events, I will support President @realDonaldTrump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg,” tweeted Graham, who is in a tight reelection race.

The loyal Trump supporter told CNN in July that he didn’t know how practical it would be to try to fill a SCOTUS vacancy in the remaining months of the president’s first term.

He made a statement in late 2018 after the Kavanaugh hearings, “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”

In early 2016, while McConnell was blocking a vote on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat, Graham supported the move and claimed that the Republicans were establishing a new rule that would “stand the test of time.”

“We are setting a precedent today, Republicans are,” he said at a Judiciary Committee meeting March 10, 2016. “Based on what we’re doing here today. That’s going to be the new rule.”

“If there is a Republican president (elected) in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say: ‘Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next President, whoever it might be, make that nomination,’ and you could use my words against me, and you’d be absolutely right,” Graham said.

Collins, also in a tight race and trailing her opponent in several polls, said it’s an issue of fairness.

“In order for the American people to have faith in their elected officials, we must act fairly and consistently — no matter which political party is in power,” she tweeted in a statement.

She expressed no objection to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s beginning the process of reviewing a Trump nominee.

“Given the proximity of the presidential election, however, I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,” she said. “In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3rd.”

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also said it is too close to the election and the precedent set in 2016 should stand.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning that if four GOP members refuse to support Trump’s nominee, there would not be enough votes to seat a new justice.