Sen. Blunt says he will support Trump if nominated; does not support third party

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he plans to support Donald Trump or whoever is the Republican nominee in the November presidential election.

Some conservatives have raised the possibility of a third-party candidate if Trumps wins the GOP nomination. But Blunt argued against such a move.

"I think the idea that there is a realistic third-party alternative doesn't make sense," he said Monday after a campaign stop in Cape Girardeau.

Blunt said his focus so far has not been on the presidential race, but his re-election bid and efforts in the Senate to roll back government regulations.

"I am certainly interested in returning to the Senate at a time when Americans are saying they want government to stop doing dumb things," Blunt said.

Blunt also voiced support for Republican leaders in the Senate who have indicated the Senate won't consider President Barack Obama's nomination, Merrick Garland, to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

He said "there is no real history" of letting a president "put somebody on the court for a lifetime appointment" in the last year of his presidency.

"This is no small decision. It will determine the court for a long time. I think the right thing is for people to be heard," Blunt said.

The nomination, he said, should be left up to the next president.

"It doesn't matter who the president (Obama) nominates. It doesn't matter if he is a conservative or liberal," Blunt said.

If the Democratic presidential candidate wins the White House, Blunt said he would oppose any effort to consider Obama's nominee during a lame-duck session.

Blunt also said he would oppose any nominee of Obama, who he described as a president who has "exceeded his authority and appears not to respect the constitutional process of government."

The senator said a vacancy has not come open on the Supreme Court in an election year since 1936.

Speaking before more than 50 area officials and GOP supporters at Heuer and Sons Implement Co. in Cape Girardeau, Blunt stressed his support of agriculture. He decried government regulations.

"Regulators have been so bad," he said, criticizing the federal Environmental Protection Agency's regulations "to control every drop of water."

Blunt said the federal government is "the biggest obstacle" to economic growth.

"There is a reason to fight regulations that don't make sense. There is a reason to fight taxes that don't make sense. There is a reason to fight executive overreach," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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