Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski both voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2006. But whether the centrist Republicans will vote to confirm him to the Supreme Court is still unknown. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Collins, Murkowski signal comfort with Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump could have done a lot worse than Brett Kavanaugh, according to Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.

The centrist GOP senators offered few hints on Tuesday about how they will vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. But it’s clear that Trump could have made confirmation in the narrowly divided Senate much more difficult if he had picked someone like 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett or another equally conservative nominee.


“Let’s put it this way: There were some who have been on the list that I would have had a very, very difficult time supporting, just based on what was already publicly known about them,” Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in an interview on Monday. “We’re not dealing with that.”

Collins (R-Maine) told reporters that while she wouldn’t directly compare Kavanaugh with Barrett, she touted Kavanaugh’s experience and sounded warm notes about him while insisting she has yet to decide.

“It will be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job. He clearly is qualified for the job,” Collins said. “But there are other issues involving judicial temperament and his political, or rather, his judicial philosophy that also will play into my decision.”

Both senators also voted for Kavanaugh’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court in 2006.

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Republicans need a simple majority to confirm Kavanaugh and control just 50 votes while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is out recovering from brain cancer, meaning a defection by Murkowski or Collins could throw the nomination into doubt.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but Republican senators seemed confident that the two centrists, who back abortion rights, would be with them after Kavanaugh was announced Monday night.

Instead of facing off against a judge they mighty view as too ideological, Collins and Murkowski and other centrists have a different problem: Sorting through Kavanaugh’s 12-year record on the federal bench and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from his time in the George W. Bush administration and his work with independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the Bill Clinton presidency.

“That’s kind of a good news/bad news with him. Good news is that there is a lot to look at it,” Murkowski said. “Bad news is there is a lot to look at.”

Murkowski said abortion rights, gun ownership rights and regulatory issues are some of her most important issue areas for Kavanaugh.

Collins said she does not “apply an ideological test to their personal views” but mentioned the importance of consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act. Democrats warn that Kavanaugh could vote to throw out Barack Obama’s health law.