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PHILADELPHIA: White House hopeful Joe Biden on Sunday (September 20) called Donald Trump’s moves to fill a Supreme Court vacancy less than two months before the US presidential election as an “abuse of power “, as some members of the president’s own party also objected.
The prospect of an accelerated confirmation vote in the Senate has sparked furious pushback from Democrats desperate to prevent Trump from moving the court durably to the right.
Two Republican senators have also registered their opposition to any hasty vote to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the popular liberal justice who died Friday at age 87.
Biden, speaking in Philadelphia on Sunday, accused Trump of wielding “crude political power” by trying to “ram” his court choice amid a close election campaign.
“I think the voters will make it clear: They will not tolerate this abuse of power, this constitutional abuse,” said Biden, who urged the Senate not to act until after the November 3 election.
“If Donald Trump wins the election, then the Senate should advance its selection and weigh that candidate fairly. But if I win the election, President Trump’s nomination should be withdrawn.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivers a statement regarding the passing of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Photo: AFP / Jim Watson)
The president said on Saturday that he is going to “move fast” and that he expected to announce his nominee in the next week and that “she will be a woman, a very talented and very bright woman.”
Biden urged a handful of hesitant Republican senators to “follow their conscience.”
The timing of the vote in the Senate, before the election or in the lame duck session immediately after, remains unclear.
READ: Mourners across America honor pioneer Ginsburg
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said no vote should be held before the election, and Susan Collins of Maine said the choice should be left to whoever is elected in November.
With Republicans occupying 53 of the 100 Senate seats, Democrats face an uphill battle to block a Trump candidate.
Either way, politicians from both parties are bracing for a seismic battle in a year that has already seen an impeachment vote, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a blunt economic collapse.
‘ARROWS IN OUR ALJAR’
Among Democrats’ few options: delaying tactics in the Senate and efforts to mobilize public pressure on more moderate Republicans to separate from their party.
“We have our options … arrows in our quiver,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a senior Democrat, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
He offered few details, but ruled out the possibility of a government shutdown.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses for her official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC in 2018 (Photo: AFP / Mandel Ngan).
The court vacancy has provided a welcome new topic for Trump, who has struggled to downplay the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, now fast approaching the grim total of 200,000 deaths.
Pelosi seemed determined to keep the virus issue front and center, returning to that topic repeatedly during her interview with ABC, as Biden emphasized in her speech.
‘CONFIRM BEFORE ELECTION DAY’
Democrats are denouncing what they say is the hypocrisy of Republicans, in particular Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who in 2016 blocked Barack Obama’s attempt, much earlier that election year, to fill another vacancy on the Supreme Court.
But Republicans now insist that the situation this year is different, with the same party controlling both the Senate and the White House.
“The right thing is for the Senate to confirm before election day,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz told ABC.
Both sides view the court’s balance as it rules on controversial issues, such as abortion, health care, gun control and LGBTQ rights, as of utmost importance.
READ: ‘Battle of the Titanic’: US Supreme Court seat changes 2020 presidential campaign
Conservatives now control five of the court’s nine seats, but Chief Justice John Roberts sometimes sides with the Liberals.
If confirmed quickly enough, a new conservative judge would be in a 6-3 majority and could play a crucial role, in his first months in court, if the November election faces legal challenges.
Cruz, who was on Trump’s list of potential court candidates, insisted Sunday that a full court was needed to avoid a critical impasse should a battle over the election result reach the Supreme Court. .
“An equally divided 4-4 court can’t decide anything,” Cruz said. “We need a full court on Election Day.”
Media reports say Trump is targeting two potential judges: Amy Coney Barrett, a 48-year-old federal appeals court judge based in Chicago, and Barbara Lagoa, 52, a Miami federal judge.
Donald Trump speaks at an election rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on September 19, 2020 (Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski)
Of the twenty names on a tentative list previously published by Trump, Barrett, a fiercely anti-life Catholic, is considered among the most conservative.
Analysts said that Lagoa, as a Cuban-American, could help Trump win votes in the key state of Florida.
No date has been set for Ginsburg’s funeral or a public memorial service, which is sure to be a major national event.
