JUDGMENT DAY
■ Trump to announce nominee on Saturday ■ He has the votes in Senate
Sen. Mitt Romney said he’d vote for a Supreme Court nominee, all but assuring President Trump will be able to fill RBG’s seat.
Sen. Mitt Romney all but sealed the deal for Senate approval of President Trump’s nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying Tuesday that he supports holding a vote before the Nov. 3 election.
Democrats vehemently oppose replacing liberal Ginsburg — who died Friday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer — with a conservative, but have found just two Republican senators willing to object to a preelection vote: Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins.
Romney (R-Utah) said he based his decision on historical precedent.
“My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomi- nation is not the result of a subjective test of ‘fairness’ which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” Romney said. “It is based on the immutable fairness of following the law, which in this case is the Constitution and precedent.”
Republicans hold 53 Senate seats and need 50 votes to confirm the nominee because Vice President Mike Pence would be a tie-breaker.
Trump on Tuesday said he would be announce his nominee at 5 p.m. Saturday.
He has said he’s considering five women, including federal appeals court Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa.
Barrett, 48, was considered in 2018 for the nomination given to Brett Kavanaugh and already faces criticism from Democrats for her religiosity. She is well-known to DC Republicans and considered likely to cement an ideological shift on the court.
Lagoa, 52, is a Cuban-American favorite among Florida Republicans, who argue her selection could rally Hispanics behind the president ahead of the election.
Trump met with Barrett, a judge on the Chicago-based US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, on Monday at the White House and said afterward he may meet with Lagoa during a trip to Miami on Friday. Lagoa is a judge on the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit.
At a White House briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump won’t ask a nominee to prejudge abortion cases.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted an ugly fight and noted Democratic threats to add seats to the Supreme Court if they retake power.
He declined to confirm if he will hold a floor vote before Nov. 3, as is widely expected.
“When the nomination comes out of committee, then I’ll decide when and how to proceed,” he told reporters.