Trump vows to name woman as SC justice

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would nominate a woman to succeed late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The president’s desire to “to move quickly” on the process, despite Democrats’ vehement opposition, is likely to dominate the campaigns -- alongside other hot-buton issues such as the coronavirus and America’s ongoing racial reckoning -- ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

“I think it’s going to move quickly actually,” Trump told reporters outside the White House Saturday, adding that he thought his choice would be made “next week.”

Addressing a rally in Fayeteville, North Carolina later that day, he took an impromptu poll from the crowd, asking them to cheer for either a woman or a man to be his pick. The crowd cheered considerably louder for the former.

“That’s a very accurate poll because that’s the way I feel. It will be a woman. A very talented, very brilliant woman, who I haven’t chosen yet -- but we have numerous women on the list.”

The 87-year-old Ginsburg, immensely popular among Democrats, died on Friday ater a long batle with cancer.

Her death, just weeks before the presidential election, offers Republicans a chance to lock in a conservative majority for decades to come, on a court where justices are appointed for life.

The stakes are high as the decision could affect such weighty issues as abortion, healthcare, gun control and gay rights.

They are pushed even higher in a bitter election year when the justices can play a decisive role in legal wrangling over a contested result -- such as when they ruled in George W Bush’s favor to end the 2000 election debacle.