McConnell backs Merrick Garland for FBI director
Last edited Tue May 16, 2017, 01:51 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: The Hill
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 05/16/17 09:49 AM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) is throwing his support behind an unlikely proposal that Judge Merrick Garland should replace fired FBI Director James Comey, acknowledging on Tuesday that he had recommended the former Supreme Court nominee to President Trump.
"It may surprise people, but he has a deep background in criminal law, he was the prosecutor in the Oklahoma City bombing case and I think it would make it clear that President Trump will continue the tradition at the FBI of having an apolitical professional," McConnell said during an appearance on Bloomberg.
The endorsement was an about-face for McConnell, who was instrumental in blocking former President Obama's attempt to confirm Garland to the Supreme Court last year by refusing to hold hearings or votes on the judge.
But Democrats are unlikely to accept Garland trading his lifetime appointment on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for a ten-year FBI director appointment that Trump could cut short at any time by firing him.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/333570-mcconnell-backs-merrick-garland-for-fbi-director
UPDATE:
Tue May 16, 2017 | 1:08pm EDT
Judge Garland not interested in FBI job: sources
U.S. appeals court judge Merrick Garland, turned away by the Senate last year for a Supreme Court post, is not interested in serving as FBI director, two sources said on Tuesday, even as the top Senate Republican recommended him for the job.
Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has told people around him he "loves his job and is not interested in leaving the judiciary," said one of the sources familiar with the judge's thinking. The two sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he has mentioned Garland to Republican President Donald Trump as a possible successor James Comey, who Trump fired last week as FBI chief. In an interview on Bloomberg Television, McConnell referred to Garland, a former federal prosecutor, as "an apolitical professional" to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Under McConnell's leadership, the Senate last year refused to consider centrist Garland for a lifetime job as a Supreme Court justice after Democratic President Barack Obama nominated him in March 2016. In doing so, McConnell was able to allow Trump, who took office in January, to nominate Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat, restoring the Supreme Court's conservative majority.
Garland, 64, has been praised by both Democrats and Republicans in his two decades on the appeals court. His appointment there is a lifetime one, and if he took on a 10-year term at the FBI it would open up another top judicial seat for Trump to fill.
more
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-fbi-mcconnell-idUSKCN18C1X0
= new reply since forum marked as read
and I thank you for the grammatical error find, and have corrected my resentment of this ass****
Wado-------thank you
A really good deal!
He's a big part of this whole mess, and his own hands are very dirty.
If (when) Trump goes down, McConnell is probably the next one going down.
So anything this guy says is suspect, and self-serving. Yeah I get what you're saying, but it's way too late to try and reason with this guy. He's beyond reason, he's in butt-saving mode now.
Save your crackpot proposals for your idiot base.
Dems aren't imbeciles like those who vote for you in KY.
