The announcement of her death was less than 24 hours ago, but Donald Trump has already signaled he wants to quickly push to nominate Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement on the Supreme Court. This morning Trump tweeted:
“We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!”
But hold on, this is an election year. Remember back in February 2016 when Mitch McConnell said it was too close to the election for the senate to vote on Barack Obama’s nominee? Merrick Garland never got so much as a hearing. Now, the Senate Majority Leader says his 2016 move didn’t set a precedent even though the election is less than 50 days away.
Jeffrey Toobin said on CNN that McConnell “could engage in the greatest act of hypocrisy in American political history” bringing President Trump’s Supreme Court justice pick to a vote in the Senate.
MSNBC writes: “Hillary Clinton says Senate Democrats “will have to use every single possible maneuver” to prevent Sen. McConnell from enacting “the greatest travesty” and “monumental hypocrisy” in attempting to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s U.S. Supreme Court seat.“
But does McConnell have the votes? He could afford few defections from his 3-seat majority.
Here’s what Democrats could do when they next win a majority. Ed Markey is a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts.
As for voters, since the announcement of Justice Ginsburg’s passing, Democrats raised more than $30 million.
And in Virginia, a state that’s already begun early voting, lines were long on Saturday morning.