WASHINGTON _ Sen. Roy Blunt Tuesday met privately Tuesday with President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, as his nomination moves toward a vote possibly sometime in September.
Blunt, R-Mo., officially supported the nomination after the meeting, issuing this statement: "Based on our conversation, along with his outstanding judicial record and legal background, I believe Judge Kavanaugh is the right choice to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. I look forward to supporting his nomination as the confirmation process moves forward."
The Kavanaugh-Blunt meeting continues a series of sit-downs between Trump's second court nominee and senators who will decide on his confirmation.
It also comes a day after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., signaled his support for the nominee. Paul had been one of the few Republican senators who had expressed concerns about the nominee, and his affirmation of Kavanaugh made it more likely he will be confirmed.
Trump lauded Paul in a tweet but Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told The Hill newspaper that the Kentucky was a "perennial tease" who was seeking attention while intending to vote for Kavanaugh in the first place.
Blunt gave a 13-minute speech on the Senate floor the day after the nomination lauding Kavanaugh's qualifications, and criticizing Democrats for knee-jerk opposition without meeting Kavanaugh or researching his record.
"A lot of people have jumped to a lot of conclusions," Blunt said then.
He characterized Kavanaugh as a "brilliant legal mind" who is "devoted to his community," and a constitutionalist who once wrote: "Don't make up new constitutional rights that are not in the Constitution."
That complies with Blunt's theory, the senator said. A Supreme Court justice should "be sure the law is applied as it's written, not as a judge thinks it should have been written," Blunt said.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the first Democrat to meet with Kavanaugh, on Monday. He said he wanted another meeting to further help his deliberations on Kavanaugh.
Manchin and Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana were the only Democrats to vote for Trump's first nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
Republicans in Missouri attacked Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., for voting against Gorsuch. She has not yet declared which way she will vote on Kavanaugh. A spokesman said Tuesday that McCaskill and Kavanaugh are trying to work out a time to meet.
Heitkamp, Donnelly and Manchin are again key votes on the Kavanaugh nomination. Republicans will need 50 _ with Vice President Mike Pence potentially making 51 _ but they have a narrower, 51-49 Senate advantage since the Gorsuch nomination because of the election of Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama late last year and the illness of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been in Arizona for months.
Moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are also potentially pivotal votes.
