- Kellyanne Conway rejected Schumer's push for Trump to nominate Garland to the Supreme Court in 2017.
- Conway in her new memoir detailed how Trump asked for her thoughts on the matter in the Oval Office.
- "I don't think much of it, sir," she said to Trump, who eventually nominated judge Neil Gorsuch.
Just days after Donald Trump was sworn in as president in January 2017, then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway found herself in one of the most consequential meetings of any administration.
Trump was set to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who had passed away in February 2016.
For nearly a year, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky held open the seat, and in the process denied hearings for then-President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. After Trump was elected in 2016, Republicans were thrilled at the opportunity to appoint a younger jurist to replace Scalia, a leading originalist voice on the court.
Democrats were incensed that Garland — a well-respected judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — was never considered by the Senate, as they lacked the votes to block a GOP nominee.
However, during the Oval Office meeting, then-Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York pressed Trump to nominate Garland. Among those in the room: McConnell, then-White House counsel Don McGahn, and Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Dianne Feinstein of California.
But as Conway detailed in her new memoir, "Here's the Deal," she immediately threw cold water on the idea, as Republicans already knew they wanted to tap an individual who would join the court's conservative wing.
"Schumer brought up his idea that Trump should renominate Garland," she wrote. "Trump looked at him skeptically and then asked what I thought. 'I don't think much of it, sir,' I said, before turning to Schumer: 'Respectfully, senator, why would he do that?'"
Schumer replied: "It would heal the nation."
Conway inquired if the Democratic leader could potentially back a judge who opposed abortion.
"Isn't he pro-choice?" she asked of Garland. "Is there a pro-life judge you could support?"
She added: "The meeting didn't go much further after Schumer's pipe dream fell flat in the room, though that wouldn't be the last time I heard from Senator Schumer."
Trump would soon nominate conservative Neil Gorsuch — a former law clerk to Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy and a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit — to replace Scalia on the Supreme Court.
The decision excited the Republican base, which wanted a president who would appoint judges that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that afforded women the constitutional right to an abortion.
Gorsuch was confirmed in April 2017 by a 54-45 vote, winning the support of every Senate Republican and three Democrats — Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Trump was able to further reshape the Supreme Court with the successful confirmations of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, whose appointments gave the judicial body what is widely seen as a 6-3 conservative edge.