President Trump has promised to reveal his nominee for the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday, hinting that the nominee would be a woman. Democrats are demanding that the seat remain stay vacant until after the election. Republicans say they have the constitutional right to fill it immediately.
Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has advised any Americans outraged with Republican plans to fast-track a presidential Supreme Court pick to get back at Trump and the GOP by voting early.
“What we have to make sure people know, they must vote and must vote early, so that the message, their voices, their vote, that that message comes clearly,” Pelosi said. “If the Republicans insist on going forward, there has to be a price to pay. President Lincoln…said public sentiment is everything, and I think the public sentiment must be heard,” the lawmaker added.
Calling the Republican plans to pick a new justice so quickly “totally, completely inappropriate,” particularly after the Republicans blocked Barack Obama from having his SCOTUS nominee approved for nearly a year following the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, citing the impending election, Pelosi suggested that it was “no use getting into their hypocrisy.”
Trump Dares Pelosi to Impeach Him
Trump trolled Pelosi at a campaign rally on Tuesday after she warned that the Democrats can’t rule out launching a new impeachment inquiry against him if he didn’t halt his nomination plans. “I’m the only guy in the world that could be impeached for filling a seat. Go ahead, I want them to do that,” Trump said.
A day earlier, Trump said he and the Republicans would “win all elections” and get back control of the House of Representatives if the Democrats moved forward with a new impeachment hearing.
Trump survived a Democratic-led impeachment process in February, with the Republican-led Senate acquitting him after he was impeached by the Democrat-controlled House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his alleged illegal efforts to dig up dirt on the Biden family’s alleged shady dealings in Ukraine.
Republicans have a 3 seat majority in the 100 seat Senate, with two Republican senators saying they would oppose voting on Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court before the election as a matter of principle. Mitt Romney, ordinarily a harsh critic of the president, said he would vote on the nominee “based upon their qualifications” if the nomination reaches the Senate floor.
Mail-In Voting Spat
Trump and the Democrats have clashed repeatedly over mail-in voting, with the president alleging that mail-in voting being used by most states amid the coronavirus pandemic is rife for large-scale fraud, and saying that he would have to “see what happens” before committing to a peaceful transfer of power after the election.
On Thursday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, runner-up to former Vice President Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries earlier this year, once again warned Democrats to prepare for a scenario in which Trump refuses to give up power on November 3. He also called on the media to make the American people understand that “there is no longer a single election day,” and asked social media companies to engage in censorship on their platforms to crack down on alleged “disinformation” online.
Earlier this month, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer backed a Sanders plan for a “nightmarish scenario” in which Trump refuses to concede defeat and has to be forced out of office.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
