“Joe Biden’s closing argument will shift to a dominant emphasis on health care, turning the looming Supreme Court fight into a referendum on coverage and pre-existing conditions,” officials tell Axios.
“Biden aides believed they were winning when the race was about the coronavirus pandemic. Now they plan to use the Supreme Court opening as a raucous new field for a health care fight, returning to a theme that gave Democrats big midterm wins in 2018.”
In his first extended remarks following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Joe Biden accused Republicans who would “jam this nomination through” of hypocrisy, while seeking to reason with other GOP senators, Politico reports.
Said Biden: “Please follow your conscience. Don’t vote to confirm anyone nominated under the circumstances President Trump and Senator McConnell have created. Don’t go there. Uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience, let the people speak. Cool the flames that have been engulfing our country. We can’t ignore the cherished system of checks and balances.”
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 62% of Americans, including many Republicans, want the winner of the November presidential election to name a successor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is the second Republican Senator to oppose taking up the a new Supreme Court nomination before the election, the Washington Post reports.
Said Murkowski: “For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed.”
The only other Republican to take such a position so far is Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who said over the weekend that whoever is elected in November should nominate Ginsburg’s replacement.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC News that President Trump is rushing to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg because he “wants to crush the Affordable Care Act.”
“Pelosi wants to steer the conversation around the potential Ginsburg replacement to health care, which polls show is a top issue for voters, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has urged the courts to strike down the law, and with it, protections for millions with pre-existing conditions.”
“Furious Democrats are considering total war — profound changes to two branches of government, and even adding stars to the flag — if Republicans jam through a Supreme Court nominee then lose control of the Senate,” Axios reports.
“On the table: Adding Supreme Court justices… eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to end filibusters… and statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.”
“Dems aren’t optimistic about blocking the nominee. But they have many ways of retaliating if they win Senate control — and are licking their chops about real movement on ideas that have been pushed futilely for decades.”
New York Times: “Now, confronted with a moment that many believe will upend the 2020 election — the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the prospect of a bitter Supreme Court confirmation battle — Mr. Biden’s campaign is sticking to what it believes is a winning strategy. Campaign aides said Saturday they would seek to link the court vacancy to the health emergency gripping the country and the future of health care in America.”
“While confirmation fights have long centered on hot-button cultural divides such as guns and especially abortion, the Biden campaign, at least at the start, plans to chiefly focus on protecting the Affordable Care Act and its popular guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.”
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“President Trump said on Saturday that he expected to nominate a candidate to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court next week, and that his selection would ‘most likely’ be a woman,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “I would say that a woman would be in first place. Yes, the choice of a woman I would say would certainly be appropriate.”
He later confirmed his pick would be a woman: “I will put forward a nominee next week. It will be a woman.”
The Wall Street Journal has a list of Trump’s potential picks.
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Barack Obama, quoted by NBC News:
“Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn’t fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in.”
“A basic principle of the law — and of everyday fairness — is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment.”
“The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle. As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard.”
New York Times: “In Times/Siena polls of Maine, North Carolina and Arizona released Friday, voters preferred Mr. Biden to select the next Supreme Court justice by 12 percentage points, 53% to 41%. In each of the three states, Mr. Biden led by just a slightly wider margin on choosing the next justice than he did over all.”
“Similarly, a Fox News poll last week found that voters nationwide trusted Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump — by seven points — to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.”
“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quoted by NPR, just before she died.
Multiple sources close to President Trump with direct knowledge tell ABC News he is expected to put forth a nominee to fill Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat in the coming days.
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died Friday, NPR reports.
The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.
A Louisiana judge who is running for re-election has been convicted of molesting his daughters’ teenage friends, the New Orleans Times Picayune reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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