WASHINGTON — President Obama took his campaign for a Supreme Court justice straight to the constituents of recalcitrant Republican senators Monday, giving interviews to local television stations in an effort to jump-start Judge Merrick Garland's stalled nomination.
Indeed, Obama name-checked Republican senators to reporters from Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin in a series of six interviews at the White House Monday. The strategy behind the interviews wasn't lost on the reporters granted them: "The fact is, every reporter in this White House holding room (they call it the Map Room) is from a state in which an incumbent Senate Republican is up for re-election," wrote Josh McElveen of WMUR in Manchester, N.H. "In New Hampshire, of course, that is Kelly Ayotte."
► Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: "Sen. Flake has met with Judge Garland, which I very much appreciate, and Sen. McCain so far has not." he told KSAZ in Phoenix. "I think if the roles were reversed, and Sen. McCain had made a nomination, or any Republican president were making a nomination, I think that they would be howling."
► Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa: "It is now up to Sen. Grassley and the Judiciary Committee to give him a hearing so the public and the people of Iowa can hear him answering questions, so they can make their own judgments, and then they've got to give him a vote," he told KCCI in Des Moines. "I think ultimately, he's going to get a hearing, he's going to get a vote, and he's going to be confirmed."
► Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis: "I'm glad that Sen. Johnson has finally agreed to meet with him. He says he's not going to give him a vote before the election, and yet you haven't heard a good reason for it," he told WISN in Milwaukee.
► Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. "The fact that he is not even getting a hearing currently, and some senators like Sen. Blunt are not even meeting with him, which I think the American people have already said is objectionable," he told WDAF in Kansas City.
Obama also gave an interview with WKRC in Cincinnati, home of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Monday that those are exactly the same arguments that Obama has made for two months.
"But this is an opportunity for the president to sit before local television anchors and make the argument once again, and present it, hopefully, in a compelling way that will have an impact on the constituents of five or six Republican senators," he said. "We're going to continue to apply pressure to Republicans to do their job."
Within hours of the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia in February, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had pledged not to confirm any Obama nominee to the court. He and other GOP senators have argued that waiting until after the presidential election will allow voters to weigh in on the direction of the court.
