Sen. Orrin Hatch doesn’t think he’d be nominated or confirmed to the Supreme Court, but the Utah Republican said Tuesday if he were, he’d live another 20 years just to do the job.
“That’s kind of a joke. I’ll be 82 in March. They’re not going to put an 82-year-old man on there,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “Of course if they decided to do that, I’d have every Democrat praying for my demise. If they did do that, and it’s not going to happen, but if they did, I would spend the next 20 years making sure that I did the job.”
“I eat very, very well and exercise every day, but that’s not even in the cards,” Hatch added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN on Monday that the consensus choice for a nominee would need the support of a majority of Republicans.
Asked if there were any consensus choice, the South Carolina Republican said, “Probably not. Orrin Hatch is all I can think of.”
Obama has yet to announce whom he would pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly this past weekend, though the President has vowed to nominate someone despite Republicans demanding that the next Supreme Court nominee come from the 45th administration.
Democrats criticizing Republicans for protesting Obama’s plan to name a nominee are being “hypocritical,” Hatch said.
“It’s interesting how the Democrats are crying and moaning and groaning. It’s highly hypocritical,” he continued. “For them to talk like this when literally we are in the middle of the voting campaign for the President of the United States, I think it just makes sense to put this off for the next president.”