Donald Trump Pushes to Replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘Without Delay’
Less than 24 hours after Ruth Bader Ginsburg—the second woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court—passed away, President Donald Trump made his intention to replace her “without delay” clear.
This would directly go against RBG’s final wish as dictated to her granddaughter the week before her death. “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” she said.
Trump, however, tweeted to the GOP on September 19 that it’s their “obligation” to vote in his selection for her replacement. “We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us,” he wrote. “The most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of the United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!”
This vacancy was always going to inspire a massive power struggle between Democrats and Republicans. In 2016, Senator Mitch McConnell and the GOP refused to vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. That was eight months before the 2016 election. We are currently just 45 days away from the 2020 election on November 3.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden, on the other hand, is imploring the Senate to stick by their original stance. “Let me be clear: The voters should pick a President, and that President should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg,” he shared on Instagram and Twitter.
“This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, when there were nearly nine months before the election,” Biden wrote in the caption. “That is the position the United States Senate must take now, when the election is less than two months away.”
Some Republicans are pressuring Donald Trump to wait until the election before pushing for his nominee, but that hasn’t quelled public outrage over Trump’s tweet and the Senate Republicans’ perceived hypocricy.
If Trump is unable to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice before the election, it will be one of the biggest decisions he or Biden will make as president in the next term. Register to vote.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
