South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that he "took a lot of crap" for voting for President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees, and now it's time for Democrats to return the favor.
"He's going to get confirmed, just a matter of when and how," Graham told MSNBC immediately following the announcement by President Donald Trump that he was nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace the seat on the bench left open with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia a year ago.
"To my Democratic friends, I voted for [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan. I thought they were qualified," he said, adding that he doesn't buy Democrats' complaints that Republicans should have confirmed Obama's nominee Merrick Garland to the seat last year.
"In the last year of the presidency the nominating process was already afoot, so we said wait to the next president," Graham said. "Most people thought it was going to be Clinton, including me, and I didn't vote for Trump, but he deserves this pick and he's going to get confirmed."
Graham said it would be "sad" if Republicans have to invoke the "nuclear option" with Gorsuch, meaning they would change Senate rules to allow for a simple majority vote to confirm him, but if added that "he's going to get confirmed.
"I've took a lot of crap voting for Obama's judges," he said. "I thought they were qualified. I've tried to be fair to everybody the best I know how to be. I didn't think Garland should have been picked in the last year of Obama's term after we started the primary process so if that's the argument it's very unpersuasive. This president won, he deserves the right to pick qualified people and this is one of the most qualified people I've ever met so time will tell."