President Donald Trump will announce his nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows confirmed the date of Trump’s announcement to reporters, followed by a tweet from the president himself.
Ginsburg, who died Friday night at age 87 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband, Martin.
On Monday, Trump told “Fox & Friends” he had a list of five finalists, “probably four,” and that he is pushing for a confirmation vote before Election Day. Democrats have howled in protest, accusing Republicans of rushing through a pick so close to the election after refusing to do so for President Barack Obama in 2016.
Trump disparaged reports that Ginsburg had told her granddaughter it was her wish that a replacement justice not be confirmed until the inauguration of a new president. Trump said he thought his Democratic political foes were behind the report, including Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the House impeachment probe, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
“I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi,” Trump said. “I would be more inclined to the second. But that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe a Pelosi or Shifty Schiff.”
The president and his fellow Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who will control the timing of the confirmation hearings and vote, have pushed back against the 2016 comparison, noting that Trump could win again and saying that, unlike four years ago, the same party controlled both the White House and the Senate.
“We have the presidency and the Senate and we have plenty of time,” Trump said. “I think that would be good for the Republican Party and I think it would be good for everybody to get it over with.”
Trump allowed that he would accept a vote in the lame duck period after Election Day but made clear his preference would be that it occur by Nov. 3.
Announcing a nominee on Friday or Saturday would leave less than 40 days for the Senate to hold a confirmation vote before the election. No nominee has won confirmation that quickly since Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court in 1981. O’Connor was confirmed 99-0 just over a month after she was nominated by President Ronald Reagan.
Details were still scant early Monday about funeral plans, but The New York Times reported Ginsburg likely will lie in repose at the Supreme Court building. A private ceremony will be held for Ginsburg at the cemetery, which is also the final resting spot for many Supreme Court justices, the top court said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, vowed Friday night, hours after Ginsburg’s death, to call a vote for whomever Trump nominated. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said any vote should come after the Nov. 3 election. “Voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice to consider,” Biden said.
Ginsburg’s death has brought renewed attention to the nation’s highest court and has given the president another chance to cement his conservative imprint on the court regardless of his reelection.
Ginsburg was the second female Supreme Court justice after Sandra Day O’Connor.
On Monday, protesters gathered outside U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s home in Washington, D.C., demanding the Senate wait until after the November election to choose the nation’s next Supreme Court justice.
Graham is head of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which will oversee the hearings.
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