Gardner No, Bennet Yes On Hearing Obama’s Supreme Court Pick

Barack Obama, Merrick Garland
<p>(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)</p>
<p>Federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, right, stands with President Barack Obama as he is introduced as Obama&#039;s nominee for the Supreme Court during an announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, Wednesday, March 16, 2016.</p>
Photo: Federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland (AP Photo)
Federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, right, stands with President Barack Obama as he is introduced as Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court during an announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, Wednesday, March 16, 2016.

President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

Republican Cory Gardner has backed Senate GOP majority leaders who want the next president to choose a replacement for the late Antonin Scalia.

Gardner repeated his stand in a statement issued Wednesday.

"Our next election is too soon and the stakes are too high; the American people deserve a role in this process as the next Supreme Court Justice will influence the direction of this country for years to come," he said.

Democrat Michael Bennet says it's the Senate's constitutional responsibility to consider Garland now.

"This is not the time to play politics to satisfy our political bases. The Senate should do its job," Bennet said.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, also released a statement urging the Senate to consider Garland.

Republicans want to deny Obama the chance to change the court's ideological balance before he leaves office next January.

Garland is chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

As a federal prosecutor, he led the investigation into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and supervised the prosecutions of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in Denver.