President Donald Trump said Monday he believed the Senate should vote to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court before the election.
“I think the final vote should be taken, frankly, before the election,” Trump said in an interview on Fox and Friends.
The president said Republicans owed voters a say on his nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away on Friday. Trump said he would announce his nominee, who would likely be a woman, on Friday or Saturday of this week.
“We won the election, we have the right to do it, so we have plenty of time,” he said in the interview. “We have a lot of time.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has committed to a vote on the president’s nominee but has not said when the vote will take place.
The president said the vote would only help Republican senators in close races, such as Sen. Cory Gardner and Sen. Joni Ernst.
“I think it’s going to help Cory, by the way, I really do,” Trump said. “He’s a great guy, very, very loyal to the party and to his state.”
He also criticized Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) who said that Republicans should wait for the next president to fill the seat.
“I think Susan Collins is very badly hurt by her statement…People are not going to take this,” he said.
Trump said Democrats had to accept the fact they did not have the power to stop his Supreme Court nomination.
“Losing elections, that has consequences,” he said, noting if Democrats won future elections, they would be able to nominate their own justices to the Supreme Court.
“I’m going to tell you right now, it’s a very big deal,” Trump said. “We picked two great ones, and I have a third. You know, I’m very lucky because rarely does a president have this opportunity.”
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