Graham schedules vote to approve Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote to approve Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court – before her confirmation hearings have even ended.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham scheduled a committee vote for 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15,

Graham is wielding the gavel in the performance of his political life.

Once a biting critic of President Donald Trump, the three-term South Carolina Republican on Monday opens the confirmation hearings for Barrett just three weeks before Election Day. It could be a last stand for Graham as well as Trump, who are both struggling to win reelection. Graham once said he’d oppose any effort to confirm a justice to the high court in a presidential election year.

His Democratic opponent in South Carolina, Jaime Harrison, is reporting a record-breaking fund raising haul.

Barrett’s nomination is expected to be brought up for a vote at the morning of the last day of hearings and then delayed for a week, per committee rules.

If that happens as expected, the GOP-led committee would then vote to approve her nomination Thursday, Oct. 22. That would set up a final confirmation vote on the Senate floor the week of Oct. 26.