Rick Scott wants a quick vote on RBG’s replacement

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said Friday night that he wants to vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court replacement before Election Day, echoing the position of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“It would be irresponsible to allow an extended vacancy on the Supreme Court,” Scott said in a statement issued two hours after Ginsburg’s death was announced. “I believe that President Trump’s nominee should get a vote in the U.S. Senate.”

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio did not immediately respond when asked if the U.S. Senate should replace Ginsburg before the 2020 presidential election is held on Nov. 3. The Senate must vote on any Supreme Court nominee.

But in March 2016, eight months before Election Day, Rubio said he wouldn’t replace former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the last year of President Barack Obama’s second term.

“I don’t think we should be moving forward with a nominee in the last year of this president’s term,” Rubio said to reporters on Capitol Hill shortly after suspending his presidential campaign. “I would say that even if it was a Republican president.”

Scott wasn’t in the U.S. Senate in 2016 and did not publicly weigh in on Merrick Garland’s nomination to the high court, which was stopped by McConnell because Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate. Scott’s 2018 victory over former Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson for one of Florida’s U.S. Senate seats gives Republicans an additional vote in a potential Supreme Court nomination fight. Scott wasn’t in office for Neil Gorsuch’s successful nomination in 2017 or Brett Kavanaugh’s successful nomination in 2018 and Nelson voted against both nominees.

McConnell praised Ginsburg’s legal work but also made a statement Friday confirming his position that the Senate will vote on a Supreme Court nominee before Election Day.

“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” McConnell said in a statement. “In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term. We kept our promise. By contrast, Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary. Once again, we will keep our promise.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s statement on Twitter was to republish McConnell’s own 2016 remarks, when he prevented Garland’s nomination.

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice,” Schumer said in the tweet. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Days before her death, Ginsburg dictated a statement to her granddaughter asking that she not be replaced until after the election.

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Ginsburg said.

Florida Democrats said Ginsburg shouldn’t be replaced until after the November election.

“My hope is that the United States Senate can honor her final wish and wait until a new president is installed to nominate her replacement,” Miami Rep. Donna Shalala said in a statement.