WASHINGTON, D.C. (LEX 18) — Within hours of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, a political battle over the Supreme Court of the United States emerged.
"President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement released on Friday.
Democrats want McConnell to hold off on the vote because the country is just a few weeks away from Election Day. They say McConnell did that in 2016 when President Barack Obama's nominee didn't get a vote eight months before an election.
However, McConnell says the situation in 2020 is different from what happened in 2016. On the Senate floor on Monday, he said it's the norm not to move forward with a nominee when the government is divided. In 2016, that was the situation - the President was a Democrat, and Republicans controlled the Senate.
"President Obama was asking Senate Republicans for an unusual favor that had last been granted 130 years before then, but voters had explicitly elected our majority to check and balance the end of his presidency. So, we stuck with the basic norm," said McConnell.
Democrats argue that the Senate has never confirmed a Supreme Court nominee this close to an election.
"If that was how Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans justified their mindless obstruction of President Obama's nominee, surely they must abide by their own standard," said Sen. Chuck Schumer.
