President Donald Trump joked at a midterm rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday that he would choose Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for the next Supreme Court vacancy, suggesting both parties would vote to confirm him to get him out of Congress.
Trump praised Cruz’s legal credentials and presented the idea as a way around the difficult confirmation process. He predicted that Democrats and Republicans alike would back Cruz’s nomination because they wanted him to leave the Senate.
Cruz has said he has no plans to leave the Senate for a lifetime appointment to the court. At an April event hosted by The Wall Street Journal, he said Trump had spoken to him seriously about a hypothetical vacancy, but that he preferred policy fights to legal battles.
Cruz said Trump had approached him about all three vacancies during the president’s first term and that he declined each time because he did not want to leave politics. Trump appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.