TRUMP VOWS TO NOMINATE WOMAN FOR U.S. TOP COURT
His desire to move quickly on new justice likely to dominate election campaign
PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Saturday said he would nominate a woman to succeed late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Trump’s desire to “to move quickly” on the process, despite Democrats’ opposition, is likely to dominate the campaigns — alongside other hot-button issues, such as Covid-19 and America’s ongoing racial reckoning – ahead of the Nov 3 election.
“I think it’s going to move quickly actually,” Trump said, adding that he thought his choice would be made “next week”.
Addressing a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina later, 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 consid
erably 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 after a long battle 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.
Trump has already named two justices during his term as president, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, giving conservatives a 54 majority before Ginsburg’s death, though that does not guarantee rulings in Trump’s favour — there have been several recent examples of conservatives siding with their progressive colleagues.
Trump, who is lagging in the
polls behind Democratic opponent Joe Biden, has another powerful incentive to move ahead: providing a jolt of enthusiasm among his anti-abortion and evangelical supporters.
But, with 45 days to go before the election and early voting already begun in some states, galvanized Democrats are pushing back furiously.
Biden said Friday that “the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider.”