McConnell Pushing Kethledge for Supreme Court to Appeal to Establishment Republicans

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for Judge Ray Kethledge to be President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy opened by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Breitbart News has learned.

McConnell has, in private conversations, said he is pushing Trump to pick Kethledge for the slot because he thinks Kethledge’s positions in contravention of the GOP base on certain issues like immigration would make him an easily-confirmed nominee in an election year.

“McConnell has said he does not want a SCOTUS battle in an election year,” one source briefed on McConnell’s comments to a variety of people around Washington, including at least one journalist whom the Senate Majority Leader spoke with off the record ahead of Monday’s announcement. “He thinks Kethledge would be easy to confirm because Kethledge is not a consistent conservative.”

McConnell’s argument, per sources who have heard him make it directly, is that Kethledge is non-controversial and would not face the same problems in the Senate confirmation process—meaning he would rather not have to fight than have a nominee with fewer questions about his or her conservative positions.

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