President Donald Trump’s drive to move federal courts in a conservative direction hit a rare setback Thursday, when a Republican senator’s revolt over an appeals court nominee’s controversial college writings led to withdrawal of the nomination.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday called off a planned vote on nominee Ryan Bounds after a GOP-only lunch in which Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina told fellow senators he couldn’t vote for Bounds at this time.
Democrats quickly pounced on the withdrawal to bolster their push to receive more documents to prepare for a Senate confirmation hearing on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
“If Republicans agreed that Bounds is not qualified because of what he wrote in college, how could they possibly argue that material from Brett Kavanaugh’s time in the White House and as a political operative aren’t relevant?” said Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.