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Donald Trump has promised to run a candidate in the next week to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pressuring the Republican-controlled Senate to consider the election without delay.
Taking the stage at a North Carolina rally with chants of “Fill That Seat,” the president said he would nominate his selection despite objections from Democrats.
After taking what he joked was a “very scientific poll” of the Fayetteville crowd as to whether the fans wanted a man or a woman, he declared that the choice would be “a very talented, very brave woman.”
“I will present a nominee next week. It will be a woman, ”Trump said. “I think it should be a woman because I actually like women a lot more than men.”
He added that he still didn’t know who he would choose.
“We won an election and those are the consequences,” said the president, who later appeared to indicate that he would be willing to accept a vote on his nominee during the period of lack of conviction after the elections. “We have a lot of time. We have a lot of time. We are talking about January 20.”
He praised Ginsburg as a “legal giant … His landmark failures, fierce devotion to justice, and courageous battle with cancer inspire all Americans.”
Earlier, Trump had said he had an “obligation” to act without delay. “We have an obligation. We win and we have the obligation as winners to choose who we want. That is not the next president. We are here right now. “
A Republican senator has already broken ranks, with Susan Collins of Maine, who is in an uphill battle for re-election, saying Saturday that she believed replacing Ginsburg should be a decision of the president who is elected on November 3. It would take three more defections from the Republican ranks to prevent Trump’s nominee from joining the court.
At stake is a seat for a female magistrate who spent her last years on the bench as the undisputed leader of the liberal wing of the court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican, promised to call a vote for Trump’s nominee, but Democrats responded that Republicans should follow the precedent that Republican lawmakers set in 2016 by refusing to consider a US election. supreme court in the run-up to the elections.
The imminent clash over the vacant position, when to fill it and with whom, stirs the final stretch of a presidential race for a nation already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed almost 200,000 people, has left millions unemployed and has increased tensions and partisan anger.
McConnell pledged to Trump in a phone call Friday night to bring the election to a vote, although he has not said if it would be before the election. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said any selection should be made after November 3.
“Voters must choose the president and the president must choose the judge to consider,” Biden said.
This month, the president added 20 more names to his list of potential court candidates, and advisers in recent days have focused on a short list with many female candidates, according to four White House advisers and officials close to the process. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.
Those under consideration for the superior court include three women who are federal appeals court judges: Amy Coney Barrett, beloved among conservatives and a top favorite; Barbara Lagoa, who is Hispanic and comes from the battlefield state of Florida; and Allison Jones Rushing, who worked for Judge Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, when the current Trump-appointed judge was an appellate court judge.
McConnell, who sets the calendar in the Senate and has made judicial appointments his priority, stated unequivocally in a statement that Trump’s nominee would receive a confirmation vote. In 2016, McConnell refused to consider Barack Obama’s nominee months before the election, ultimately preventing a vote on Judge Merrick Garland.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called a conference call with Democratic senators at noon Saturday, according to a person on the private call who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. He told senators that the “number one goal” should be to communicate the stakes in the confirmation vote.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v Wade, a long-standing target of conservative activists. Even with the current conservative majority, the court voted 5-4 in July to repeal a restrictive abortion law in Louisiana.
Cristine Crispell, who works in special education in Reedsville, Georgia, drove five hours to attend Saturday’s rally with her two teenage daughters.
He said Trump had “absolutely” the right to nominate a new judge, even this close to the election. “I would like Roe v Wade to be canceled,” he said. “The sanctity of life is a huge thing.”
