» Cruz urges quick nomination and confirmation.
WASHINGTON — Hours after news broke that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died Friday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said President Donald Trump should nominate her successor next week and that the Senate should confirm that nomination before the election.
Cruz’s comments, on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear that any Trump nominee would get a vote on the Senate floor, even as voters are already heading to the polls in a number of states in an election in which the presidency and Senate majority are on the line.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican up for reelection in November, didn’t go as far as Cruz on Friday night, though he said as recently as May that the Senate has a “responsibility” to fill a Supreme Court vacancy this year, despite it being an election year.
Cornyn issued a statement Friday calling Ginsburg a “titan of the Supreme Court.” He also retweeted a Politico reporter quoting McConnell as saying: “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
His statement did not mention the possibility of Trump choosing Ginsburg’s successor. Cornyn and Cruz serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees Supreme Court nominations.
“Despite our ideological differences, I have always maintained a deep respect for Justice Ginsburg,” Cornyn said. “Her unwavering commitment to public service has inspired a generation of young Americans — particularly women — to reach for their dreams.”
Ginsburg, 87, died Friday in her home in Washington, D.C. NPR reported that just days before her death, she dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Democrat MJ Hegar, who is running against Cornyn, reacted quickly to the incumbent’s affirmation of McConnell. “It took @JohnCornyn less than two minutes to fall in line with Mitch McConnell,” she said on twitter. “The Supreme Court is on the ballot.”
Senate Republicans four years ago denied even a hearing for Merrick Garland, whom former President Barack Obama nominated to fill a vacancy left by Antonin Scalia, who died on a ranch in West
Texas in February 2016. Republicans have said that was a different case because Obama couldn’t run again in 2016 and the Senate was controlled by a different party than the White House. It has been more than a century since the Senate confirmed an election-year nominee by a president from a different party.
Obama also nominated Garland in March, months before the 2016 election. Early voting already has begun in several states in this year’s election and begins in Texas on Oct. 13.
Cruz said he argued before Ginsburg nine times as Texas’ solicitor general. He said she “was brilliant and she was a very careful lawyer and she was a trailblazer and she leaves a large legacy.”
But Cruz said, “This nomination is why Donald Trump was elected. This confirmation is why the voters voted for a Republican majority in the Senate.”
“It’s going to take a lot of work to get it done before Election Day, but I think we should do our job,” Cruz said.
Cruz is one of dozens of names Trump has listed as possible Supreme Court nominees, though the senator repeatedly has said he has no interest in the job.