“I think there’s plenty of people that he wouldn’t have to take a chance on her,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who will chair the Judiciary Committee if Republicans keep control of the Senate. He added that Yates’s ties to the FBI’s 2016 Russia investigation were “very worrisome.”

Asked if he thought a GOP-controlled Senate would confirm Yates to be attorney general, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a member of the panel, replied bluntly, “No.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who currently chairs the committee, said he could give a “thumbs-up” to either ousted Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) or Circuit Judge Merrick Garland, whose 2016 Supreme Court nomination Republicans stonewalled.

But asked about Yates as attorney general, he replied, “I don’t think so.”