GOP senator reacts to Garland meeting before it happens

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) praised Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in a Thursday op-ep, saying though he met with Garland “as a personal friend,” the meeting hasn’t changed his mind about refusing to take up the nomination. There’s just one problem: The meeting hasn’t happened yet.

“Like many of my Senate colleagues, I recently met with Chief Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court,” Hatch wrote in an op-ed published and later removed on the website of The Deseret News early Thursday morning, as reported by The Washington Post.

The op-ed is still available in a Google database.

{mosads}”Our meeting, however, does not change my conviction that the Senate should consider a Supreme Court nominee after this presidential election cycle,” Hatch wrote.

A spokesman from Hatch’s office said questions about the early publication should be directed to The Deseret News.

Hatch clearly plans on adhering to the Republican Party position that President Obama’s successor should nominate someone to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, regardless of Garland’s qualifications.

“Democrat and Republican leaders have long maintained that the height of a presidential election season is not the right time,” Hatch said in his op-ed.

Hatch spokesman J.P. Freire said Hatch has always intended to meet with Garland because of their longtime friendship, according to The Washington Post.

“He looks forward to their meeting and the opportunity to explain his position on the Supreme Court vacancy,” Freire said.