Donald Trump to reveal Supreme Court nomination later this week
President Donald Trump has said he expects to announce his nomination for the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday, after funeral services for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
He told Fox & Friends on Monday that he had a list of five finalists, “probably four”, and that he is pushing for a confirmation vote before election day.
Mr Trump disparaged reports that Ms Ginsburg had told her granddaughter it was her wish that a replacement justice not be confirmed until the inauguration of a new president.
The president said he thought his Democratic political foes were behind the report, including Representative 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,” Mr Trump said.
“I would be more inclined to the second … But that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe a Pelosi or Shifty Schiff,” using his nickname for the California congressman.
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.
Democrats point to the hypocrisy of Republicans in trying to rush through a pick so close to the election after refusing to do so for President Barack Obama in February 2016, long before that year’s election.
President trump Democrat rival Joe Biden is appealing to Republican senators to delay the vote until after the election. Ms. Ginsburg, 87, died on Friday of metastatic pancreatic cancer.
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