Amid chants of “Fill that seat!” at a rally in North Carolina, President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will nominate a new Supreme Court justice “next week” to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.
Ginsburg, 87, died Friday from complications of cancer. She reportedly told her family just before her death that her “most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Election Day is now 45 days away.
Trump, who’d vowed earlier Saturday to nominate a new justice “without delay,” told rally-goers that he “will be putting forth a nominee next week.”
“It will be a woman,” he said, adding that “we have plenty of time” to fill the seat.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) promised Friday that Trump’s nominee would “receive a vote on the floor” of the Republican-majority Senate.
Democratic lawmakers and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have, however. vehemently opposed the Republicans’ plan to fast-track a nomination.
“There is no doubt ― let me be clear ― that the voters should pick the president, and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider,” Biden said on Friday night.
“This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, when there were almost 10 months to go before the election,” he added, referring to Republicans’ controversial refusal to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. “That’s the position the United States Senate must take today.”
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