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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday threw support behind U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs as President Biden’s choice for Supreme Court nomination, saying any other candidate would be “problematic” in gaining votes from Republicans in the Senate divided along party lines.
“I think she’s the one that would get the most Republican votes,” Graham told ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, referring to Childs, who currently sits on the federal bench in his home state of South Carolina. “I would be very inclined support her because of her background. She didn’t go to Harvard and Yale, which I think is a plus. She went to University of South Carolina. But we will wait and see what President Biden does.”
“But I have told him and his team that if you nominate Michelle Childs she will be in the liberal camp, for sure, but she has a hell of a story,” Graham added. “And she would be somebody, I think, that could bring the Senate together and probably get more than 60 votes. Anyone else would be problematic.”
Biden met Thursday with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who will lead the confirmation process for a nominee to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
Sources told Fox News the White House has quietly begun the vetting process of more than a dozen names, which include a broad mix of federal and state jurists, academics and lawyers from groups like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Biden has said he plans to make a decision by the end of February and that his choice will be a Black woman.
Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court, listens during her nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 16, 2010.
((AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File))
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who will oversee the confirmation process as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said obtaining a bipartisan vote of approval for Biden’s eventual nominee remains a top priority. As former chairman, Graham helped seat former President Donald Trump’s pick, Amy Coney Barrett, just days before the 2020 presidential election. He also led efforts to defend another Trump pick, Brett Kavanaugh, from sexual assault allegations until he was ultimately approved for the high court.
Addressing the worsening situation between Russian and Ukraine, Graham told “This Week” he has been working on bi-partisan pre-invasion sanctions in Congress should Russian President Vladimir Putin move forward with threats of invading Ukraine but claimed “the White House keeps pushing back.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, waits to speak to reporters following bi-partisan passage of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 10, 2022. Graham is among a handful of Republicans declaring a willingness to back President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court. Graham has been promoting U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs as his preferred choice to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
((AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File))
To Putin, Graham warned that an invasion would have long-lasting effects.
“This is not the last president America will have. If Russia invades the Ukraine, you will destroy the U.S.-Russian relationship for decades.”
Graham also predicted successes for the GOP in the midterm elections this year, predicting that Republicans will regain at least control of the House. He asserted that as a party, Republicans are “back in the game” following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol “mainly due to Democratic failures.”
The senator said he supported former President Trump’s possible re-election bid in 2024 but advised that he stop discussing 2020 election fraud claims and refocus on the future Republican Party agenda.
“If he continues to talk about the 2020 election, I think it hurts his cause and, quite frankly, it hurts the Republican Party,” Graham said.
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“I think Biden’s approval ratings are in the tank because his policies are not working,” Graham said before detailing what Trump should focus on should he decide to run again.
“He’s got to talk about how to fix a broken border, how to repair the damage done through the Biden economic agenda, and how to make the world a safer place,” he said.
Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
