Top Senate Judiciary Democrat Feinstein says she doesn't 'have the power' to block Trump's Supreme Court nominee

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WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Senate panel that examines potential Supreme Court judges, acknowledged Thursday she did not have the power to block President Donald Trump's nominee from passing through the Republican-controlled Senate.

"Neither this committee nor the Senate should consider a nomination at this time," she said Thursday during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I recognize I don’t have the power to carry that through, but I feel it very deeply."

Feinstein said the next president should make the decision on the nomination to fill the seat vacated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, but "If things move forward, and a nominee is confirmed before a new president is inaugurated, it is deeply concerning."

Democrats want the GOP-majority Senate to hold off on Supreme Court nomination proceedings until after Election Day in the hopes Democratic challenger Joe Biden defeats Trump and Democrats take over control of the Senate. However, Republicans are pushing forward quickly and Trump is expected to announce his nominee Saturday. 

Democrats in Congress have mostly acknowledged there is little they can do to halt the process. Republicans appear to have the numbers to pass Trump's nominee out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans hold 12-10 seat advantage, to the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. A nominee needs only a majority in the 100-member Senate to be confirmed. 

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Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the second-ranking Senate Democrat and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Tuesday, "You can slow things down, but you can’t stop them."

"I’ve been around here a few years," he said. "You can slow things down but you can’t stop them. And there comes a point, we use whatever tools we have available, but ultimately there will be a vote," he said. 

When asked if there was anything Democrats could actually do, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., also a Judiciary Committee member, said on Monday, "You mean some triple secret trick procedure that we managed to hold back through Gorsuch and Kavanaugh? No," he said with a sarcastic smile.