Trump’s Supreme Court push roils US election
US President Donald Trump yesterday urged Republican lawmakers to back his upcoming nomination for the Supreme Court “without delay” as the issue upended the election only a day after the death of liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The 87-year-old justice, immensely popular among Democrats, died on Friday after a long battle with cancer.
Coming shortly before the November 3 election, in which Trump trails his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls, the vacancy offers Republicans a chance to lock in a conservative majority at the court for decades. The choice of a new justice would likely affect such far-reaching controversies as abortion, healthcare and gun control.
The president’s tweet pushing for the Ginsburg vacancy to be rapidly filled fuelled speculation of a fierce partisan nomination battle at the height of the election campaign.
The prospect of a Senate confirmation vote before the election has already brought an explosive response from Democrats, still seething over Republicans preventing Barack Obama from filling a court vacancy through most of the 2016 election year.
“Democrats are hopping mad about this — not just a little mad,” University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato told CNN.
Biden made clear on Friday that any nomination should await the results of the election.
“The voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider,” he said.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that “this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president” — carefully echoing the words of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in 2016 when he blocked Obama nominee Merrick Garland.