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Trump Squeezes Senate GOP With Demand for Pre-Election Supreme Court Vote
Posted
September 21, 2020
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1:02Now PlayingPresident Donald Trump said he wants his looming Supreme Court pick confirmed before the Nov. 3 election, escalating pressure on Senate Republicans and Mitch McConnell as the majority leader seeks to protect his most vulnerable members.
Trump said Monday that he’ll name a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by the end of the week and that he wants that followed quickly by hearings and a pre-election confirmation vote. He warned that any Republicans who buck him would pay at the ballot box.
“The vote, the final vote, should be taken frankly before the election, we have plenty of time for that,” he said on Fox News, referring to the election to decide control of the White House and Congress 43 days from now. “If you have the Senate, if you have the votes, you can sort of do what you want as long as you have it.”
Holding what’s likely to be rancorous confirmation hearings and a vote to replace Ginsburg, who died Friday, before the election could tie up crucial time that could otherwise be spent campaigning. It also would force endangered incumbents in swing states to cast a contentious vote before Election Day. But if Democrats sweep Republicans out of power, that may change the vote calculations in the Senate, with Democrats already talking of retaliation in that event.
McConnell has promised a vote on Trump’s nominee, but hasn’t set a timetable. Proceeding with the vetting, hearings and confirmation in less than 40 days would be an unusual feat, though two justices in modern times, John Paul Stevens in 1975 and Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981, were confirmed in shorter spans. The average confirmation process in that period took about 70 days.
“To get it done before Election Day, everything has to work, I think, pretty precisely,” Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.
Senate Republicans, who currently control the chamber 53-47, are on the defensive in this election. There are 10 Senate seats now held by the GOP that are considered competitive, and three of those members are on the Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
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