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The Senate is set to escalate a long simmering fight over President Trump's judicial nominees. Republicans are poised to confirm a pick for the influential circuit courts next week without the support of either of the nominee's home-state senators—a first for the Trump era. Eric Miller is the first appeals judge to get a vote on the Senate floor this year, and the 31st of Trump’s presidency. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set up an initial vote on his Ninth Circuit nomination for Monday evening. “The judicial train is running in the committee and it will soon hit the floor,”...

Once again, House Republican leaders last week found themselves having to answer for the offensive statements of Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. This time King further confirmed his insensitivity and evidently racist approach to public policy. The New York Times quoted King asking, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization – how did that language become offensive?" In a frank Washington Post op-ed, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., asked, “Why are Republicans accused of racism? Because we’re silent on things like this.” To their credit, many Republican office holders were quick to condemn the provocative remarks, with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst tweeting, “I...

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) tore into fellow Republican Rep. Steve King (Iowa) on Friday after King questioned how terms such as “white supremacist” and "white nationalist" were offensive, writing in an op-ed that Republicans with opinions like King's damage the party and the nation as a whole. Scott wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that the party often struggles with “civility and fairness,” pointing to King’s comments, which drew swift blowback from conservatives and Democrats. “When people with opinions similar to King’s open their mouths, they damage not only the Republican Party and the conservative brand but also...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott announced Thursday he will oppose embattled judicial nominee Thomas Farr, in a reversal of his position a day earlier that seemingly ends the nominee's chances for now amid fierce criticism by civil rights groups. Democratic lawmakers and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have long cited Farr's work on the campaigns of North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms in 1984 and 1990. Farr was first nominated to the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina by former President George W. Bush in 2006, but never received a confirmation...

Senate Republicans on Thursday delayed a vote on one of President Trump's judicial nominees after a determination that they don't yet have to vote to confirm him. The Senate was set to vote at noon on Thomas Farr, who was nominated by President Trump to serve on the federal bench in North Carolina's Eastern District. But that vote was moved until some time next week. Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are still deciding whether to support Farr, a former campaign lawyer for the late Sen. Jesse Helms who has been accused participating in a scheme to suppress...

Confirmation proceedings for President Trump’s judicial nominees have partially stalled on Capitol Hill, as outgoing Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake is standing firm in his vow to oppose all Trump nominations until the Senate votes on legislation to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Flake, a frequent Trump critic who opted against running for re-election this year, followed through on his threat Wednesday afternoon and joined Democrats in opposing a bid to advance Thomas Farr’s nomination to serve on the federal bench for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Vice President Pence was then forced to break a tie on...

The Senate advanced a controversial judicial pick for President Trump on Wednesday after Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote for the nomination. Senators were deadlocked 50-50 to end debate on Thomas Farr's nomination to be a district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Pence, presiding over the chamber, then cast the tie-breaking vote. The fate of Farr's nomination was held in suspense even going into the start of the vote on Wednesday afternoon. Four Republicans were viewed as potential swing votes: Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). But Collins...

South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott said Thursday he would oppose the nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal bench over his links to voter suppression efforts in North Carolina targeting blacks. Scott’s decision assures that President Trump’s nominee will not be confirmed by the Senate, where retiring Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake had already said he would oppose Farr’s nomination. Senate Republicans have a slim 51-49 majority and could not afford to lose more than one vote since all 49 Democrats oppose Trump’s pick. In a statement explaining his decision, Scott, who is black, cited a 1991 Department of...

“If there is a scintilla of evidence that the president colluded with the Russians and Brennan had that evidence, the entire world would already know,” Scott said during a Fox News appearance with host Neil Cavuto. In a Thursday op-ed published in the New York Times, Brennan based his claim that President Trump colluded with Russia on the fact that then-candidate Trump “publicly called upon Russia to find the missing emails of Mrs. Clinton” during the 2016 campaign. “By issuing such a statement, Mr. Trump was not only encouraging a foreign nation to collect intelligence against a United States citizen,...

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Tim Scott torpedoed a conservative nominee to the Ninth Circuit appeals court on Thursday whom even liberals called qualified for the bench, citing college-era political comments, energizing Democrats, and creating a new line of attack against the confirmations of dozens of other judicial picks, including Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. Ryan Bounds, an Oregon federal prosecutor who clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit, had an impressive array of credentials that impressed people on the left and the right. Even the left-wing American Bar Association (ABA) unanimously voted to rate Bounds as...

In a dramatic move Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell withdrew the nomination of President Donald Trump’s pick for the Ninth Circuit, Ryan Bounds, after reports surfaced that his nomination didn’t have enough votes for confirmation. Bounds, an assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon for the last eight years, was the Trump administration’s first nominee to the Ninth Circuit, named in September to replace Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, for whom Bounds clerked. O’Scannlain took senior status at the end of 2016. Both of Bounds’ home-state senators, Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, opposed his nomination. They withheld their blue slips for Bounds,...

The Senate on Wednesday took a symbolic shot at President Trump’s trade policy amid anxiety on Capitol Hill over his tariff strategy. Senators voted 88-11 to instruct lawmakers hashing out a deal on a government funding bill to include language “providing a role for Congress” on tariffs implemented for national security reasons, known as Section 232 of the trade laws. The vote is nonbinding, meaning lawmakers don’t have to add trade language into the funding bill. But the vote margin, with more senators supporting it than the amount needed to override a veto, underscores the depth of concern on Capitol...

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) acknowledged that his conversations with President Trump about race have been "painful" and "uncomfortable," but insisted that the president has kept an open mind on the issue. "They're hard, they're painful, they're uncomfortable to sit in the Oval Office and have a conversation with the president about things that you strongly disagree about," Scott told CNN's Van Jones. "He didn't change his perspective, I certainly can't change my perspective." But Scott also said that he was "hopeful" after the conversations. "The way it closed I thought gave me reasons to be hopeful," Scott recalled. "It closed...

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) threw fellow GOP South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott’s name out as a future presidential candidate. “I would love Tim Scott to run for president,” Gowdy stated. “Whether it’s 2024, whenever it fits his heart, but he has a cheery, optimistic brand of conservatism that I think our country would benefit from and, quite frankly, whether he won or not, our country would be better off hearing someone with his life story, the grandson of man who couldn’t read, picked cotton, then he grew up to pick out a seat in...

<p>On Friday, Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano urged her Twitter followers to watch Republicans debate the tax overhaul bill hours before its scheduled vote.</p> <p>“watching…..Senator Tim Scott “$100 a month is real money” to struggling families ? Is he F**KING kidding ? HOW MUCH does $100 buy in this day ? Costs me $50 to fill my f**king gas tank FFS,” replied Twitter user Cherl Criss.</p>

Video from the November 28, 2017, broadcast of CNN's debate on tax reform with Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) facing off with Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tim Scott (R-SC).

Two GOP senators said Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore should not be a member of Congress amid allegations that he sexually harassed teenage girls when he was in his 30s. “The allegations are stronger than the denial, and Roy Moore should find something else to do. I think that there’s a strong possibility with a new Republican candidate, a proven conservative, that we can win that race in Alabama,” Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, said on “Fox News Sunday Morning.” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she finds the sexual misconduct claims against Moore “credible.” “I read...

Stressing that the violence of 300 years of racism in America is not equivalent to the anarchist Antifa protesters, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said he wasn't confident President Trump would have an "epiphany" on race in America after the two had a candid chat at the White House on Wednesday. The White House, along with a photo calling the senator "Tom" Scott, said in a statement released after the meeting that they discussed the "administration’s relationship with the African-American community, the bipartisan issue of improving race relations, and creating a more unified country." "President Trump remains committed to positive race...

We just haven’t gotten assurances if they had to cast the votes how they would vote.”–Ted Pitts, president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce The business lobby has turned up the heat on U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina to reject President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The National Association of Manufacturers said on Aug. 22 that it had launched radio and online ads in South Carolina calling on the senators to oppose the White House pick, former New Jersey Rep. Scott Garrett. A radio script released by NAM says...

The hog roast was popular once again, but the previous administration’s health care reform also was on the menu after being roasted by the new vice president. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking Saturday at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual GOP fundraiser, said Congress must make it a priority to get to President Donald Trump’s desk a bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known better to the folks at Saturday’s event as Obamacare. The U.S. House has passed a bill that would undo much of the health care reform implemented under former President Barack Obama. The U.S....