Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Washington braced for supreme court fight

Two women embrace in front of the supreme court buidling, paying their respects to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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3.54pm BST
15:54

Richard Luscombe has news of Democrats hoping to reach out across the aisle following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

Delaware’s Democratic senator Chris Coons says he hopes to persuade several Republican “friends” in the upper chamber to resist the rushing through of Donald Trump’s supreme court nominee, claiming a swift confirmation would “dishonor Justice Ginsburg’s legacy.”

“Her dying wish was that the voters should choose the next president, the next president should choose her successor, that’s because she understood deeply our constitution and the significance of the supreme court and its legitimacy,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

“I’m going to be working this week to reach across the aisle to see if I can’t persuade some friends to respect tradition, to respect the precedent they set in 2016 and let the voters decide.”

Challenged by host Chris Wallace why Democrats demanded a vote on Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in that election year, yet now wanted to delay Trump’s choice, Coons insisted the situation was different.

“In 25 states across our country Americans are already voting,” he said, pointing out that Garland’s nomination was nine months before election day.

“For the Republican majority, just 44 days before the next presidential election, to rush through a new justice in a partisan confirmation process will further divide our country. [They] set this new precedent, they fought hard for it, so if they were going to set a precedent that in an election year there shouldn’t be a hearing, meetings, votes, they should live by it. Fair is fair.”

3.42pm BST
15:42

In 2016, Republicans blocked Barack Obama’s nominee to the supreme court in the run-up to the presidential election. This year, they are preparing to rush through Donald Trump’s nominee before the presidential election. How voters react to this seeming hypocrisy remains to be seen. In an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, is asked if these tactics could hurt Republican senators in close races in November.

“As far as the politics of it, I think the American people wanted Donald Trump to make nominations,” Short says.

3.33pm BST
15:33

More from House speaker Nancy Pelosi on ABC’s This Week. Host George Stephanopoulos asks her about scenarios in which Democrats would seek to block a Republican nomination to fill the vacancy left on the supreme court by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“Some have mentioned the possibility if [Republicans] try to push through a nominee in a lame duck session that you and the House can move to impeach President Trump or Attorney General Barr as a way of stalling and preventing the Senate from acting on this nomination,” says Stephanopoulos.

Pelosi does not rule out that possibility. “Well, 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. This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election with statements that he and his henchmen have made,” she says.

Stephanopoulos presses Pelosi again, asking if she “not ruling anything out”.

“Yeah,” she says. “We have a responsibility. We’ve taken an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of the American people.

“That is when we weigh the equities of protecting our democracy requires us to use every arrow in our quiver.”

3.20pm BST
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Richard Luscombe

Republican senator Tom Cotton, who is on Donald Trump’s shortlist to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the supreme court, offered an extraordinary observation of the reaction to her death on Fox News Sunday, reports Richard Luscombe.

“The Democrats are saying radical things right now, Democrats are threatening to riot in the streets, Democrats are already rioting in the streets though,” Cotton told host Chris Wallace.

“They’re threatening to pack the court, they were already threatening to pack the court,” he added, referring to suggestions any Democratic-led Senate might add seats to the supreme court next year.

Cotton’s assessment contrasts sharply with scenes in Washington DC on Saturday night, when thousands attended a peaceful candlelight vigil to celebrate the life of the 87-year-old justice, who died on Friday.

The protests that swept the nation in the wake of the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis were over race and police brutality, but Cotton appeared to want to link the reaction to that episode to the upcoming fight for the supreme court seat.

Cotton, a right-wing Arkansas senator, had acknowledged his interest in the vacancy. But that hope was effectively ended by Trump’s pronouncement that he would pick a woman.

Cotton dismissed allegations of hypocrisy directed at Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who has promised a vote this year on Trump’s choice after successfully blocking the confirmation of then-president Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 because it was an election year.

“In 2014, the American people elected a Republican majority to the Senate to put the brakes on President Obama’s judicial nominations,” Cotton said.

“In 2018 we had a referendum just a month before the midterms, [the] vote on Justice Kavanaugh. Democratic senators can look at what happened, four of their colleagues lost their re-election a month after voting against Justice Kavanaugh.

“We’re not going to rush, cut corners or skip steps. The Senate will exercise our constitutional duty. We’ll process that nomination, we’ll conduct hearings, we’ll be thorough and deliberate and careful just as we were with the nominations of Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh.”

3.12pm BST
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Pelosi: Democrats won’t shut down government over supreme court nominee

House speaker Nancy Pelosi is on ABC’s This Week. She is asked about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“I’m so glad that the country is providing such an outpouring of love and support to honor [Ginsburg] – petite, tiny in size, huge in impact, and a powerful, brilliant brain on the court,” says Pelosi.

If Republicans manage to usher in a conservative replacement for Ginsburg on the supreme court before the election (or, indeed, after it if they do well in November) Obamacare could be in danger. Pelosi refers to that scenario.

“In terms of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, any one of us who knew her, who loved her, who respected her, and that includes almost anybody who had an appreciation for greatness, mourn her loss, but would want us to move forward to protect the people who are sick, those with coronavirus who now have … millions of them now have a preexisting condition. That’s what the president wants to crush when he says he wants to replace [Ginsburg] in this short period of time,” says Pelosi.

As speaker for the House, Pelosi is leading negotiations with Republicans over a new government funding bill during Covid-19. She is asked if she can “use leverage in those negotiations to slow the nomination [to replace Ginsburg] down?”

“None of us has any interest in shutting down government. That has such a harmful and painful impact on so many people in our country,” she says. “So I would hope that we can just proceed with that. There is some enthusiasm among some exuberance on the left to say let’s use that, but we’re not going to be shutting down government.”

Updated
at 3.13pm BST

2.55pm BST
14:55

The Associated Press has news of a crucial Senate race in Arizona:

If he wins a Senate seat in Arizona, the former astronaut Mark Kelly could take office as early as 30 November, an outcome which might jeopardize the launch of Donald Trump’s third supreme court nominee.

The Democrat has maintained a polling lead over the Republican Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat held by John McCain, who died in 2018. Because the contest is a special election to finish McCain’s term, the winner could be sworn in as soon as the results are certified. Other winners in November’s contest, in which Democrats hope to retake the Senate, will not take office until January.

Trump has pledged to nominate a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that the nominee “will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate”.

If Kelly wins, when he takes office could be crucial in deciding the ensuing nomination fight. Republicans currently hold the chamber by 53 seats to 47. The prospect of falling to 52 could prompt McConnell to speed up the nomination process.

With McSally in the Senate, four defections would defeat a nomination. A tie vote could be broken by Vice-President Mike Pence. Within hours of the announcement of Ginsberg’s death, McSally declared that “this US Senate should vote on President Trump’s next nominee for the US supreme court”.

She has not elaborated on whether the vote should come before or after the election. But she highlighted the renewed stakes of her race in a fundraising pitch on Saturday.

“If Mark Kelly comes out on top, HE could block President Trump’s supreme court Nominee from being confirmed,” McSally wrote.

In the 2018 midterms, Democrats found success in Arizona, long dominated by the GOP, by appealing to Republicans and independents disaffected with Trump. The supreme court vacancy could boost McSally by keeping those voters in her camp.

Kelly said late on Saturday: “The people elected to the presidency and Senate in November should fill this vacancy. When it comes to making a lifetime appointment to the supreme court, Washington shouldn’t rush that process for political purposes.”

Arizona law requires election results to be certified on the fourth Monday after the election, which falls this year on 30 November. The certification could be delayed up to three days if the state has not received election results from any of its 15 counties.

2.43pm BST
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Bill Clinton has been busy this morning. Shortly after his appearance on CNN, he pops up on CBS’s Face The Nation.

He is asked by host Margaret Brennan why he nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the supreme court during his presidency.

“I wanted somebody who was open minded, passionately committed to equality and capable of working in the setting of the supreme court – that is getting to know the other judges, getting to know how they felt and working with them to try to forge consensus when possible,” he says.

Republicans are preparing to rush through a conservative successor to Ginsburg before November’s election, and Democrats are hoping to delay the process until afterwards. Clinton is asked who he thinks will be galvanized more by current events – Republicans or Democrats.

“I think that the voters at least have to know that if you put one more conservative, particularly an ideologically conservative Republican on the court, they’re giving up the healthcare bill for, you know, 20 million people’s health insurance, losing all the preexisting conditions for tens and tens of millions of people. No help on the other front. That’s just one example. So there are consequences,” he says.

2.32pm BST
14:32

Joe Biden retains his lead over Donald Trump nationally, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Biden leads the president 51% to 43% in the new poll, with the challenger’s lead narrowing slightly from the last NBC/Wall Street Journal poll when Biden led 50% to 41%.

Biden is up in the so-called battleground states – Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – but the margin is smaller, with the Democrat nominee leading 51% to 45%.

2.24pm BST
14:24

Joe Biden has an appearance scheduled in Philadelphia today. He will speak about the supreme court of justice and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to CNN’s Arlette Saenz.

Arlette Saenz
(@ArletteSaenz)

The Biden campaign advises @JoeBiden’s Philadelphia remarks will have a focus on SCOTUS https://t.co/t6ovyreemc

September 20, 2020

2.20pm BST
14:20

Bill Clinton: McConnell and Trump’s core value is power

Bill Clinton is on CNN’s State of the Union. Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the supreme court.

“She was a force for equality for men as well as women, for example. She was consistent and she did it in a way that was level-headed and on the level and respectful of different opinions and the other judges on the court,” says the former president. “She was highly respected because she bent over backwards to work with the other judges when she could. And she stood up and was counted when she couldn’t. And of course along the way she became kind of a cultural icon, which surprised even me I think.”

In reference to America’s current divisive political climate, he compliments Ginsburg’s ability to reach out to people who she disagreed with, while still being unwavering in her beliefs. She was “respectful of others’ opinions,” says Clinton.

Ginsburg was confirmed by the Senate 96-3 and was friends with conservative supreme court justice Antonin Scalia. Clinton is friends with George W Bush. Host Jake Tapper asks Clinton if that era is gone. “I hope not,” he says. “I really value [Bush’s] friendship.” He adds that life can be boring if all your friends “think the way you do”

He is then asked by the Republicans’ push to get a successor to Ginsburg confirmed before the election. “It’s superficially hypocritical,” says Clinton, pointing to Republicans blocking an Obama nominee in the final year of his term, but now wanting to rush through a nominee before the election.

Clinton says Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Trump’s first values are “power”. He adds that pushing through a successor to Ginsburg will “further spread cynicism” in America. “What happened to make McConnell stop trusting the American people,” he says.

Updated
at 2.33pm BST

2.02pm BST
14:02

Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said on Friday, before the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been announced, that if there was a vacancy on the supreme court she would not vote to confirm a nominee before November’s election. That, of course, would go against Donald Trump’s – and most Republicans’ – wish to get a (conservative) successor to Ginsburg in before the election.

Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump)

No thanks! https://t.co/wNtwLKYDmY

September 20, 2020

On Sunday morning Trump appeared to react to Murkowski’s comments. “No thanks!” he tweeted in reply to a promotion for a public appearance by the senator.

1.55pm BST
13:55

Mourners at vigil vow to fight Trump and McConnell

David Smith

Our Washington bureau chief went out to the steps of the supreme court last night, where tributes were paid to Ruth Bader Ginsburg – and determination to fight the Republican push to replace her was everywhere to be found…

On a pavement across the street from the supreme court, school teacher Amanda Stafford chalked the words carefully: “That’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”

It was a quotation from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a justice more renowned for her dissents than her majority opinions, including on the Bush v Gore case that decided the 2000 presidential election. Ginsburg died from pancreatic cancer on Friday aged 87, the newest jolt to an angry, divided and fragile nation.

On Saturday night, as summer succumbed to the chill of autumn, thousands came to mourn her at a vigil outside the court in Washington. Some made speeches. Others sang songs. More joined hands or laid flowers and candles. Stafford paid tribute in chalk.

“I wanted to show words that are empowering at a time when a lot of people are feeling worn out,” the 31-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia, explained. “As a woman in a country getting ever more divided, it’s important to come out and make a stand for someone who made this her life’s work.”

David’s full report is here:

1.41pm BST
13:41

Poll: voters don’t trust Trump on Covid vaccine

Donald Trump is tweeting this morning, notably about “VIRGINIA” Not the name of his promised female nominee for the court – sorry, feeble, but yesterday was a long one and I still need coffee – but a state where he wants to win, despite or perhaps because of recent reports that his campaign has given up on the commonwealth, which was once red and then purple but is more and more turning a rather deep blue.

“VIRGINIA,” the president wrote, “and everywhere else for that matter, I am the only thing standing between you and your 2nd Amendment. If I am re-elected, it is 100% SAFE. If not, it is GONE!”

In terms of what Trump would like or not like to be talking about on the trail right now, gun rights, and indeed supreme court picks, are decidedly not the coronavirus pandemic. And as it happens, there’s a poll out this morning, from ABC News and Ipsos, which says 69% of Americans have no confidence in Trump’s promises of a safe and widely available Covid-19 vaccine within weeks.

For what it’s worth, speaking of polls, the fivethirtyeight.com average puts Joe Biden 11 points up in Virginia.

1.24pm BST
13:24

The internet duly lit up on Saturday after Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on leaving the White House for a rally in North Carolina, illustrated his promise to pick a woman for the supreme court with hand gestures which appeared to outline the shape of a woman’s body.

Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa are reported to be top of the president’s list of possible replacements for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“A woman would be in first place, yes,” the president said on Saturday, making the gesture. “The choice of a woman I would say would certainly be appropriate.”

Aaron Rupar
(@atrupar)

“A woman would be in first place, yes. The choice of a woman I would say would certainly be appropriate” — Trump on RBG’s replacement pic.twitter.com/WDm9eiZLrm

September 19, 2020

Trump has made inappropriate gestures when speaking about women before. At an October 2016 rally in Greensboro, North Carolina – then as now a swing state – Trump made groping gestures while discussing allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

This week, Emily Dorris, by some counts Trump’s 26th accuser of sexual misconduct detailed her allegations to the Guardian. As with all the other accusations, Trump denied them.

1.03pm BST
13:03

Good morning…

…and welcome to another day’s coverage of politics in the US, dominated by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the looming fight over who will replace her on the supreme court.

The liberal heroine died on Friday, from complications arising from pancreatic cancer and at the age of 87. Tributes poured in.

And then the plotting started.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he would put a nominee to the vote, even though there were less than 50 days to go to the presidential election and, infamously, in 2016 he denied Obama nominee Merrick Garland a hearing for eight months, saying no such nomination should be made in an election year.

Donald Trump said he would move swiftly to nominate a replacement for Ginsburg, and later confirmed it would be a woman. Most observers expect it to be Amy Coney Barrett, a strict Catholic viewed with apprehension by pro-choice campaigners.

Lindsey Graham, the chair of the Senate judiciary committee who will steer the nomination, was on record in the Garland fight saying no justice should be confirmed so close to an election. No matter – by day’s end, citing as motivation Democratic moves in the bitter partisan warfare of the last decade, he said he was game. He would seek to advance Trump’s nominee.

And so to the trenches, where all is not so simple. The Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. That means that in a process which could even extend into the lame duck period after the election on 3 November, even should Trump lose to Joe Biden, they can lose three votes and still pass a nominee with Vice-President Mike Pence the tiebreaker. Two Republican moderates, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are on record saying they think the winner of the presidential election should pick the new justice. And in Arizona, a special election to replace John McCain could seat a new Democrat, Mark Kelly, by early November.

All eyes are on Mitt Romney of Utah – not up for election, a proven enemy of Trump – and others in tight re-election fights, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado among them. Would McConnell prefer to keep hold of the Senate or tilt the court right for a generation? That is the question – or one of them.

Flowers, candles, and signs are pictured at a memorial outside the supreme court.

For further reading, here’s our columnist Robert Reich on how for McConnell, one of the most ruthless, and opponents say damaging, Washington operators of all time, power always trumps principle:

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