Mitch McConnell is trying to talk President Trump out of nominating Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court because he's worried that the judge's long tenure and ties to the Bush administration would run afoul of Rand Paul and derail the nomination, the New York Times reports.
Because Kavanaugh has been on the federal bench for over a decade he may have produced as many as a million documents which Democrats could request time to review. That, plus his time as a White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush, and his time helping Ken Starr investigate President Bill Clinton, may mean Kavanaugh is passed over.
The issue is that with Senator John McCain out because of his brain cancer, the Republicans cannot lose any votes and still get confirmation. McConnell is said to be worried that Kavanaugh's work for Bush may lead him to lose support of Senator Rand Paul.
McConnell also reportedly warned Trump that nominating Amy Coney Barrett, an extremist social conservative who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, could lose the votes of Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
The Times reports that Trump is undecided and has gone "back and forth every few hours between the four options in front of him."