Democrats have ‘good chance’ of winning

A top Republican senator with close ties to President Donald Trump said Thursday he believed Democrat Joe Biden had a "good chance" of winning the presidency in the November 3 election 

"You all have a good chance of winning the White House," Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Democratic colleagues at the opening of a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

"Thank you for acknowledging that," responded Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, to which Graham added: "Yeah, I think it's true."

Graham's comments though did not change expectations that conservative Barrett would gain easy confirmation to the high court in the Republican-controlled Senate. Opening the fourth and last day of hearings on Barrett, Graham set a committee vote on the nomination for October 22. That would leave only a short time for the full Senate to meet and vote on her nomination before the election.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants Barrett confirmed before the election, to have all nine justices seated if the court needs to hear any election-related litigation.