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Updated 3 hours ago
Source: PA Images
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DONALD Trump has promised to install a new Supreme Court Justice “without delay”, hours after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The legal titan’s passing comes just over six weeks before the election and has immediately highlighted the vacancy of the high court, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell swiftly vowed to vote on whoever President Donald Trump designates.
On Twitter, Trump said: “We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered the selection of the justices of the Court. Supreme of the United States.
“We have this obligation, without delay!”
.@GOP We were placed in this position of power and importance to make decisions by the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered the selection of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. We have this obligation, without delay!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2020
Democratic candidate Joe Biden has strongly disagreed, stating that “the voters must choose the president and the president must choose the judge to consider.”
McConnell, in a statement about 90 minutes after Ginsburg’s death was announced, unequivocally stated that Trump’s nominee would go to a vote, even though he had stalled the election of then-President Barack Obama for months before the 2016 election. , finally preventing a vote.
Trump, in brief comments to reporters after learning of her death, called Ginsburg “an amazing woman” who “led an incredible life.”
He continued with a campaign speech for more than an hour after his death was announced, saying later that he had no knowledge of his passing.
Trump had said in the speech that the next presidential term could offer him up to four appointments to the nine-member court, whose members are confirmed for life, adding: “This will be the most important election in the history of our country and we have to get it right. “
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Biden, returning to Delaware from his own campaign stopover in Minnesota, praised Ms. Ginsburg upon her arrival.
She was “not just a giant of the legal profession, but a beloved figure,” he said, adding that “she represented all of us.”
The process of replacing her should not begin until after the elections, he clarified.
The death of Ms Ginsburg could significantly affect the presidential race, further stirring passions in the deeply divided nation as the campaign moves down its stretch ahead of the November elections.
Trump took the stage for a rally in Minnesota shortly before Ms Ginsburg’s death was announced. He spoke for more than 90 minutes and did not mention it, apparently he had not been alerted about the development. He spoke to reporters about his passing when he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington.
A confirmation vote in the United States Senate is not guaranteed, even with a Republican majority.
Generally, it takes several months to examine and hold hearings on a supreme court candidate, and there is little time before an election.
Key senators may be reluctant to cast votes this close to elections. With a slim majority of Republicans, 53 seats in the 100-member House, Trump’s election could afford to lose only a few.
McConnell did not specify when, but moving a confirmation to the post-election “lame duck” session would lead to other complications, including the political tangle of trying to carry it out in the final weeks of the year after voters have decided who controls. the White House and the Senate.
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Joe Biden says the vote on the replacement of Ms. Ginsburg should take place after the election.
Source: PA Images
Trump has made the appointment of figures in the federal judiciary, including two Supreme Court justices, part of his legacy. He said last month that he would “absolutely” try to fill a vacancy in the superior court if one arose before the end of his first term.
“Absolutely, I would,” Trump said in an Aug. 11 interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“I would move fast. Why not? I mean, they would. Democrats would do it if they were in this position. “
Trump added 20 names to the list of candidates last week that he vowed to choose if he had future vacancies to fill.
The president tried to cross-check the list with justices who could be nominated if Biden wins in November, warning that Biden would select “radical justices” who “would fundamentally transform America without a single vote from Congress.” This occurred despite the fact that Biden has never outlined his list of possible picks and the fact that the Senate must confirm any nominees.
Naming his possible options, less than two months before the election, aims to repeat the strategy Trump employed during his 2016 campaign, when he published a similar list of potential judges in an attempt to win over conservative and evangelical voters who had doubts about his conservative credentials.
The average days to confirm a judge, according to the Congressional Investigation Service, is 69 days, which would be after the election.
Biden has promised to nominate a black woman to the superior court if he gets the chance.
He has said he is also working on a list of possible nominees, but the campaign has given no indication that he will release the names before the election.
Democrats believe doing so would unnecessarily distract from Biden’s focus on Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the economy, while also giving the president and his allies new targets to strike.
Trump, however, insisted that presidential candidates “owe the American people” a list of figures they would consider because, in addition to “issues of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision that it can take an American president. “
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