The overwhelming majority of Republican voters agree with the latest chant to emerge at President Trump’s campaign rallies: “fill that seat!”
President Trump’s SCOTUS shortlist has reportedly been narrowed down to five people, and the announcement on his choice will be made on Friday or Saturday. All we know so far is that the choice will be a woman, and Amy Coney Barrett is likely the front-runner.
According to Rasmussen Reports:
- Republicans overwhelmingly want President Trump to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s U.S. Supreme Court seat, but among all voters, just over half think he should leave the position vacant for the winner of the presidential election to fill.
- Forty-five percent (45%) of all Likely U.S. Voters feel Trump should nominate someone to fill Ginsburg’s seat on the high court. But 51% say he should leave the position open for the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
- Eighty-three percent (83%) of Republicans think Trump should nominate someone. Just as many Democrats (84%) say that nomination should be made by the winner in November. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 44% say Trump should nominate someone now, while 48% believe he should wait. Democrats hope to oust Trump in November, and some have even gone so far as to suggest violence against the U.S. Senate if it moves on a Supreme Court nomination before next year.
The calls for delay from Democrats are nothing more than a bet on a Biden victory, and we all remember how they behaved when they had the chance to nominate someone in an election year.
Retweet if you believe Judge Merrick Garland deserves fair consideration. #DoYourJobFriday pic.twitter.com/NYvoxcFO8H
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 18, 2016
Attn GOP: Senate has confirmed 17 #SCOTUS justices in presidential election years. #DoYourJob pic.twitter.com/Mdm0P5SRC4
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 23, 2016
Mitch McConnell had called for filling the vacancy immediately after RBG’s passing and was immediately met with criticism from people reminding him that when an opening was present during the final year of Obama’s presidency, he said “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
McConnell says this isn’t a contradiction, however. “In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term. We kept our promise,” McConnell said “Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year.”
Others have also claimed that nominating someone now would violate Ginsburg’s dying wish to have someone other than Trump nominate her replacement. Of course, these same people wouldn’t have cared in even the slightest if Antonin Scalia’s dying wish was to not have Obama choose his replacement – and even if we were to honor it – in the likely event of a Trump November victory do these people think we’re going to wait another four years for Trump’s successor to nominate someone?
As for the timing with only a month and a half to the election, it’s worth remembering that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and two other justices were confirmed in under 45 days.
