Trump is ‘leaning towards nominating Amy Coney Barrett’ to replace RBG

Amy Coney Barrett has emerged as President Donald Trump’s top choice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the nation’s highest court, sources say.  

Trump met with Barrett, a judge on the Seventh Circuit and mother of seven who adopted two children from Haiti, on Monday after he announced that he is vetting ‘four or five’ women to take Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat.

Bloomberg reported that the president is ‘leaning toward’ Barrett for the nomination but is also planning to meet with another contender, Barbara Lagoa, sometime this week.  

Sources told the outlet that Lagoa, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and former justice on the Florida Supreme Court, is the only other person being seriously considered for the job, but she is a ‘distant second’ to Barrett. 

News of the nomination race tightening came as Republicans locked down a key swing vote in Iowa Sen Chuck Grassley, who announced that he would support moving forward with a confirmation hearing before the election. 

It had been speculated that Grassley, the former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, could try to block the nomination process as he’d previously opposed filling Supreme Court vacancies during an election year.   

Trump said Monday that he will wait to announce his nomination until Friday or Saturday – after funeral services for Ginsburg have concluded. 

‘I think it’ll be on Friday or Saturday,’ Trump said of the impending announcement for his third Supreme Court nomination. ‘And we want to pay respect. We, it looks like, it looks like we will have probably services on Thursday or Friday, as I understand it.’

‘I think in all due respect we should wait until the services are over for Justice Ginsburg,’ he told the Fox & Friends panel during a Monday morning call-in interview. ‘And so we’re looking probably at Friday or maybe Saturday.’ 

Speaking to reporters before leaving the White House on Monday, Trump urged the Senate to vote on the nomination before the election, claiming there is ‘plenty of time’ to get someone through the process before Election Day on November 3.

‘I’d much rather have a vote before the election because there’s a lot of work to be done,’ the president asserted. ‘We have plenty of time to do it. I mean there’s really a lot of time. So let’s say I make the announcement on Saturday, there’s a great deal of time before the election. That’ll be up to Mitch in the Senate. I think it sends a good signal. And it’s solidarity… I’m just doing my constitutional obligation.’

The Republican Senate blocked then-President Barack Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in March 2016, which was eight months before the election. 

At the same time signaling ‘respect’ for the late justice, the president also brought into question her ‘dying wish’ that she not be replaced by a Trump nominee.

He cast doubt on Ginsburg’s dying wish to have the next president replace her on the Supreme Court, alleging it was actually written by a Democrat.

Trump said it was actually Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff who were behind the justice’s last request. 

There is not proof that this allegation has any validity and Trump did not offer any explanation.

‘I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff, Schumer and Pelosi,’ Trump said during his Fox & Friends interview.

‘I would be more inclined to the second, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that that came out of the wind. Let’s see. I mean, maybe she did and maybe she didn’t,’ he added. 

Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spera said that in her dying days, the liberal justice dictated a dying wish to her.

‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,’ she said. 

Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One from the South Lawn Monday: ‘It just sounds to me that it would be someone else. I don’t believe – it could be, it could be and it might not be too.

‘It was just too convenient,’ he added.  

Democrats have used Ginsburg’s words and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s actions in 2016 – when he held back Obama’s nominee until the election was decided – as an argument to let the winner of November’s contest nominate Ginsburg’s replacement. 

Trump also lashed out at House Speaker Pelosi on Monday – calling her ‘crazy’ after she refused to rule out impeaching him in a gambit that could be used to stall a Supreme Court confirmation process.

Trump blasted the idea – which has some political risks and practical flaws – as he defended his infamous July 25, 2019 call with the president of Ukraine that was the subject of the Democratic impeachment effort as ‘perfect.’

‘@SenateGOP Crazy Nancy Pelosi wants to Impeach me if I fulfill my Constitutional Obligation to put forth a Nominee for the vacated seat on the United States Supreme Court. This would be a FIRST, even crazier than being Impeached for making a PERFECT phone call to Ukrainian Pres,’ Trump tweeted Monday morning.

The attack came hours after Pelosi refused on Sunday to rule out impeachment as one of the ‘options’ Democrats could avail themselves of in an effort to try to stall a vote on the judicial vacancy.

‘We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country,’ she told ABC’s ‘This Week ‘ when asked about the prospect.

‘This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election,’ Pelosi continued. ‘Our main goal would be to protect the integrity of the election as we protect the people from the coronavirus.’

Ginsburg, who was lovingly referred to as RBG, died at the age of 87 late last week due to complications from her ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer. 

She will be honored in a viewing outside the Supreme Court building later this week, according to pandemic-era guidelines. 

The late Justice will lie in state this week as her casket will be on public view Wednesday and Thursday at the Supreme Court Building and Friday in National Statuary Hall in the US Capitol. Private ceremonies will also be held at both locations.

Pelosi announced Monday that the formal ceremony at the Capitol on Friday morning is invitation-only due to the COVID pandemic.

It’s unclear if Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will pay their respects and, if so, when.

Ginsburg will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery in a private service, the court said in a statement. Her husband, Martin Ginsburg, was buried at Arlington in 2010.  

The president also claimed to the Fox News morning show panel that he has narrowed his list of potential nominees to five different people.

‘I’m looking at five, probably four, but I’m looking at five very seriously,’ Trump said.

‘I’m going to make a decision on either Friday or Saturday. I will announce it either Friday or Saturday, and then the work begins,’ he continued. ‘Hopefully, it won’t be too much work, because these are very qualified people. No matter how you would look at it, these are the finest people in the nation. Young people. Pretty young for the most part.’

The president has signaled an impending announcement following the death of Ginsburg last week, claiming it’s his ‘obligation’ to nominate a new justice ‘without delay.’

With Ginsburg’s passing, only two of the remaining eight justices are women, prompting Trump to promise over the weekend he will nominate a female.

There are four women who have made the shortlist, a source with knowledge of the process said, according to Politico – Barrett, Lagoa, Kate Todd and Allison Jones Rushing.

Barrett is 48, Lagoa is 52, Rushing is 38 and Todd is 45. If any of these women are nominated and confirmed, they would be the youngest currently seated on the current Supreme Court. 

‘These are the smartest people, the smartest young people, you like to go young, because they’re there for a long time,’ Trump told Fox & Friends.

He added that his nominee would ‘abide by the Constitution,’ be a ‘good person’ and have ‘very, very high moral values.’   

Trump said Saturday that his nomination for the open Supreme Court seat ‘will be a very talented, very brilliant woman.’

‘I like women more than I like men,’ he continued during a campaign rally in North Carolina over the weekend.

The president’s swift and impending nomination will be made in hopes of pressuring the Senate to ratify his decision before voters are given the chance to decide on a second term.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell has vowed to hold confirmation hearings and bring a vote to the floor on Trump’s nomination.

The Kentucky senator has also been lobbying for Republicans on-the-fence about the nomination to join in with the majority of the GOP – who intend to confirm Trump’s decision. 

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee fell in line with the leader Sunday.

McConnell has locked down Alexander’s key swing vote for the Supreme Court fight after two other GOP senators said Ginsburg should not be replaced before the election.

Alexander threw his support behind McConnell in a statement, saying ‘no one should be surprised’ by a new appointment in an election year and that voters ‘expect it’.

The news is a blow to the Democrats, as the retiring Senator was viewed as a potential swing vote against McConnell and Trump’s plans to rush the court appointment. 

The nomination will come just six weeks before the election and has sparked fierce debate, with many Democrats – as well as some Republicans – insisting the seat must not be filled until after the election.   

The crux of the debate centers around the move made by Republicans back in 2016 – and led by McConnell – to block Obama from appointing a new justice to the court nine months before the election. 

Their argument at the time was that the position should not be filled until a new president was elected by the American people – a standard set by the Republicans that the Democrats now argue the party must continue to honor.   

Four GOP senators need to join the Democrats to stop a Supreme Court nomination going forward. 

Protesters mobbed McConnell’s Louisville home on Saturday, urging the leader to work against the president’s impending nomination and not allow a vote to take place.

And early Monday morning, demonstrators also gathered outside of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham Washington D.C. home.

‘We can’t sleep so neither should Lindsey,’ on banner, held by multiple protesters, read.

‘We are wide awake,’ another sign said.

Graham is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and will oversee the confirmation hearing for whoever is nominated to the open Supreme Court seat.

Alexander released a statement on his decision, claiming: ‘No one should be surprised that a Republican Senate majority would vote on a Republican president’s Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year.’ 

‘The Constitution gives senators the power to do it. The voters who elected them expect it.’ 

Alexander, who is retiring at the end of his current term, went on to say that Democrats would also rush to fill the seat ‘if the shoe were on the other foot’. 

‘Senator McConnell is only doing what Democrat leaders have said they would do if the shoe were on the other foot,’ he said.

‘I have voted to confirm Justices [John] Roberts, [Samuel] Alito, [Sonia] Sotomayor, [Neil] Gorsuch and [Brett] Kavanaugh based upon their intelligence, character and temperament.

‘I will apply the same standard when I consider President Trump’s nomination to replace Justice Ginsburg.’  

The senator has a history of bipartisanship, having worked closely with Democrat Senate Minority Leader Schumer in the past on making it easier for the Senate to confirm presidential nominees. 

He had also been eyed by Democrats as a swing vote during Trump’s impeachment trial, one of a handful of GOP senators that hinted they could vote to hear from witnesses with knowledge of Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine.

However Alexander disappointed Democrats in this instance too, deciding against the calling of witnesses and calling the trial a ‘partisan impeachment.’

Two GOP senators – Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins – have already dissented on the Supreme Court vote, vowing to derail Trump’s nomination plans until after the November 3 election.  

Murkowski became the second Republican senator Sunday to say the chamber should not take up the president’s nominee before the American people vote for their next president, hours after Trump threw shade at her publicly and after her colleague and frequent collaborator Collins made her own opposition to a quick vote known. 

‘For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election,’ the Alaska senator said.  

‘Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed,’ she continued.

‘I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia.

‘We are now even closer to the 2020 election – less than two months out – and I believe the same standard must apply.’      

Murkowski in her statement was referencing the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, which never got a hearing despite Barack Obama nominating Garland nine months before the 2016 elections.  

Trump took a slap at Murkowski hours before she released the statement Sunday morning, as he kept up his pressure campaign on his own party and prepared to nominate a Supreme Court Justice in an upended election. 

The president kept his comments brief, penning a simple ‘No thanks!’ as he retweeted a promotion by the Alaska Chamber of Commerce speech by Murkowski for Tuesday.

Murkowski voted against Trump’s last Supreme Court pick – Justice Brett Kavanaugh. More critically for the current scramble underway, were statements she said shortly before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. 

‘I would not vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. We are 50 some days away from an election,’ she said, Alaska Public Radio reported. 

She referenced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision not to grant a hearing to Garland in 2016 nearly nine months before the election.

‘That was too close to an election, and that the people needed to decide,’ Murkowski said.

‘That the closer you get to an election, that argument becomes even more important.’  

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine – with whom Murkowski often votes when diverging from party orthodoxy – came out with her own statement Saturday.

‘In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the President or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3rd,’ Collins, facing a tough re-election race herself, said on Twitter. 

Collins is up for reelection in a close race.   

The two dissenters have left Democrats still shy of the count of four needed to derail a nomination, but points to the possibility they could prevent it by winning over an additional pair of Republicans. 

With Alexander no longer a possible dissenter, the focus has shifted to Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who votes with conservatives but also voted for an impeachment article against Trump and has called him out occasionally in public. 

Democrats have put several other options forward to stall or counteract Trump rushing through the appointment for Ginsburg’s replacement.

Several including Rep. Joe Kennedy III have threatened to pack the Supreme Court if they capture the Senate in November and Republicans have already pushed through a conservative successor to Ginsburg.  

Joe Kennedy III, who represents Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District and is the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, tweeted Sunday: ‘If he holds a vote in 2020, we pack the court in 2021. It’s that simple.’ 

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler wrote on Twitter: ‘If Sen. McConnell and @SenateGOP were to force through a nominee during the lame-duck session — before a new Senate and President can take office – then the incoming Senate should immediately move to expand the Supreme Court.’  

Court packing is a controversial move, however Democrats argue it will be necessary to rebalance the court if Trump does not wait until after the presidential inauguration to appoint Ginsburg’s replacement. 

Other options on the table are the pursuit of impeachment charges, something  Pelosi would not rule out in an interview Saturday. 

‘We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country,’ she told ABC’s ‘This Week’ when asked about the prospect.

‘This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election,’ Pelosi continued. 

‘Our main goal would be to protect the integrity of the election as we protect the people from the coronavirus.’ 

AOC echoed the possibility of pursuing impeachment charges at a joint press conference with Schumer Sunday saying there has been ‘an enormous amount of lawbreaking’ under Trump’s watch and branding Barr ‘unfit for office’. 

‘I believe that certainly there has been an enormous amount of lawbreaking in the Trump administration,’ she said, when asked about impeachment.

‘I believe Attorney General Bill Barr is unfit for office and that he has pursued potentially law-breaking behaviors.’

She said America must ‘use every tool at our disposal’ and turn to ‘unprecedented ways’ to stall the appointment and that means putting all options ‘on the table’.

‘I believe that also we must consider again all the tools available to our disposal and all these options should be entertained and on the table,’ she said.   

Two other senior Republicans, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Rob Portman of Ohio, backed McConnell in public statements Sunday. 

Conservative Trump loyalist Sen. Tom Cotton told ‘Fox News Sunday’ the president should act ‘without delay.’

‘The Senate will exercise our constitutional duty,’ he said. ‘We will move forward without delay.’ 

Trump’s public pressure comes hours after he said at a campaign rally he will act swiftly to make a nomination. 

‘I will be putting forth a nominee this week,’ he said at a campaign rally in North Carolina 

‘It will be a woman,’ Trump added. 

The nomination would fail if Republicans were to lose four members from their 53-vote majority. 

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday pushed the Senate to vote on a nomination before the election, but would say his party has the votes.

‘I don’t know the answer to that. I believe we will’ he said.  

Before he left the White House for the rally, Trump had named two conservative women who he has elevated to federal appeals courts as contenders, a move that would tip the court further to the right.

Trump, who now has a chance to nominate a third justice to a lifetime appointment on the court, named Barret, of the Chicago-based 7th Circuit and Lagoa, of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit as possible nominees.

He praised Lagoa, in particular, as an ‘extraordinary person’.  

Lest there be any questions about the political implications, Trump is expected to make his choice in a matter of days. Those close to the president are encouraging him to announce his pick before the first presidential debate against Democratic challenger Joe Biden on September 29.

Biden said the winner of the November election should choose the next justice. Biden’s team is skeptical that the Supreme Court clash will fundamentally change the contours of a race Trump was trailing so close to Election Day. Indeed, five states are already voting.

In fact, Democrats say it could motivate voters to fight harder against Trump and Republicans as the Senate breaks the norms with an unprecedented confirmation at a time when Americans are deciding crucial elections.

‘Everything Americans value is at stake,’ Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told fellow Democratic senators on a conference call Saturday, according to a person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the private call and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biden is not planning to release a full list of potential court nominees, according to a top aide, because it would further politicize the process. The aide was not authorized to publicly discuss private deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biden’s team suggests that the court fight will heighten the focus on issues that were already at stake in the election: health care, environmental protections, gender equity and abortion.