McConnell pledges quick vote on next justice; Biden says no

Senate leader refused hearings on President Obama’s 2016 court pick

WASHINGTON — The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just over six weeks before the election cast an immediate spotlight on the crucial high court vacancy, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly vowing to bring to a vote whoever President Donald Trump nominates.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden vigorously disagreed, declaring that “voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice to consider.”

McConnell, the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, declared unequivocally in a statement not long after Ginsburg’s death was announced that Trump’s nominee would receive a vote in the chamber — even though he had stalled President Barack Obama’s choice for months ahead of the 2016 election, eventually preventing a vote.

Trump, in brief remarks to reporters after learning of her death, called Ginsburg “an amazing woman,” adding that “she led an amazing life.” He had continued with a campaign speech in Minnesota for about an hour and a half after the nation — as well as aides and many in his audience with cell phones — had learned of her death.

He had boasted in the speech that the next presidential term could offer him as many as four appointments to the nine-member court, whose members are confirmed for life. He said, “This is going to be the most important election in the history of our country and we have to get it right.”

Biden, returning to Delaware from his own campaign stop in Minnesota, praised Ginsburg upon his arrival.

She was “not only a giant of the legal profession but a beloved figure,” he said. She “stood for all of us.”

It must be up to the next president, whether himself or Trump, to choose a successor to be submitted for Senate confirmation, he said.

“This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, when there were nearly nine months before the election,” he said. “That is the position the United States Senate must take now, when the election is less than two months away. We are talking about the Constitution and the Supreme Court. That institution should not be subject to politics,” Biden said.

Ginsburg’s death could significantly affect the presidential race, further stirring passions in the deeply divided nation as the campaign pushes into its stretch run.

A confirmation vote in the Senate is not guaranteed, even with a Republican majority.

Typically it takes several months to vet and hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, and time is short. Key senators may be reluctant to cast votes so close to the election. With a slim GOP majority, 53 seats in the 100-member chamber, Trump’s choice could afford to lose only a few.

McConnell did not specify the timing.

Democrats immediately denounced McConnell’s move as hypocritical, pointing out that he refused to call hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick, 237 days before the 2016 election. The 2020 election is 46 days away.