Fox News "The Story with Martha McCallum" - Transcript Interview with Mitch McConnell

Interview

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I'm joined now by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Leader, good to have you with us today. Thank you very much.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (D-KY): Good to be with you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: It won't surprise who - it's good to have you with us, Chuck Schumer. Senator Schumer has also chimed in on this. Here's what he had to say about the possibility of holding virtual hearings. Watch.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The idea of having virtual hearings where no one is with the witness. For the highest court in the land, for a life appointment that would have such effect on people's lives makes no sense. A virtual hearing is virtually no hearing at all.

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MACCALLUM: So, sir, you are up against the clock and COVID in your effort to move this nomination through. And you hear these criticisms from your colleagues. What do you say today?

MCCONNELL: Well, we've been up against COVID since May. We've had numerous hearings remotely with senators calling in remotely, occasionally, witnesses remotely. I think the nominee will be there in person. Some members of the committee may choose to be remote. We've been dealing with this since May. All of a sudden, it's become disabling. This is just another effort to try to delay the process on this outstanding Supreme Court nominee that the president has sent up to the Senate.

MACCALLUM: So, you plan to start on Monday. I mean, give us a window into how you're going to kind of push this through and what is the markup look like on the 15th of October? That might be a bit tricky.

MCCONNELL: Well, the chairman has indicated that there are two dates that will be essential. One is the 15th, one is the 22nd. The nominee will come out on the 22nd and then be dealt with as soon thereafter. So that's the flow chart leading to consideration of the nomination. It's about time we quit talking about process and start talking about the nominee herself. An absolute sterling choice. The president could not have picked a better nominee, outstanding scholar, wonderful family, seven kids, two adopted children and a special needs child as well. A very supportive husband, a working couple, quintessentially American. And it's a great success story.

And she'll be a great member of the Supreme Court.

MACCALLUM: So, how would you rate the possibility that you can get this through and get it done? Ted Cruz is saying he believes that there are still the votes, 51 votes, but there could be numerous roadblocks ahead.

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How optimistic are you that she will be on the bench by the election or nomination cleared by the election?

MCCONNELL: Yes, that's the plan. And there's nothing I can see that would keep that from happening. We can operate successfully in a COVID environment. The Senate done that for quite some time. In fact, the current members who have a problem got it somewhere else, not here in the Senate.

So, we've been operating successfully with masking and social distancing since May. We're going to continue to do that.

Look, you don't shut down a fire department because one of the firemen ended up coming up sick one day. We're going to continue to operate. The American people are entitled to that. And that's what we're going to do.

MACCALLUM: In terms of the full vote on the floor, are you going to have to change rules to get that through? And you just mentioned that those senators likely didn't get it there. Do you hold the White House at all responsible for this Rose Garden ceremony and some of the other behaviors that some people think have been too risky?

MCCONNELL: Well, we don't have to change any Senate rules to deal with this, either in the committee or on the floor. So, no rule change are required whatsoever. I do think there have been risky behaviors in other areas, but not in the Senate. And this nomination is now in the Senate. We know how to handle this. We've been dealing with this since May and we'll handle it successfully.

MACCALLUM: So, you're saying you think that the White House has taken too many risks?

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MCCONNELL: Well, there's no question that some of the infections occurred elsewhere and not here. So, what I'm telling you is, since May, we have operated successfully here in the Senate. We know what we're doing. We're following the CDC guidelines and we'll get the job done.

MACCALLUM: All right. Before I let you go, I got to ask you about the president signaling that there's no further negotiation on a COVID relief bill. Nancy Pelosi saying this is who they are when she heard this news.

The president urging you to move forward with the nomination, but to put this to the side for now. What's your response to that?

MCCONNELL: Well, this has been going on for two months, we reengaged in July. The speaker never made a reasonable offer I put on the Senate floor.

A lot of people forget it. A proposal to deal with kids in school, small businesses --

MACCALLUM: That's right.

MCCONNELL: -- and healthcare. We couldn't get a single Democrat to even take it up. I think it's clear, Martha, they didn't want to get a deal this soon. We will reengage after the election, as the president said. I think we do need another rescue package but because of the impending election we simply weren't able to get together.

MACCALLUM: Do you think you are going to get punished for that in the Senate races which are very close. And I know you've said it's 50/50 whether the GOP will be able to hold the Senate. Is this going to hurt that?

MCCONNELL: Well, what's going to really hurt the Senate race I think is putting the Supreme Court justice front and center, let the American people take a look at her, evaluate her credentials. Every single challenger to every one of my incumbents is opposed to this nominee, every single one of them so we'll let the American people in each of these states that are hotly contested decide how important the United States Supreme Court is in casting their vote November 3rd.

MACCALLUM: Leader McConnell, thank you very much. I know there is a lot on the plate right now and we look forward to speaking with you again soon, sir. Thank you.

MCCONNELL: Thank you, Martha.

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