WASHINGTON (US) – Republican members of the Senate, including Mitt Romney, on Tuesday threw their weight behind President Donald Trump’s bid to widen the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. This has left the Democrats with little hope of stalling a vote on a successor to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died last week.
Trump in an interview said he had a “pretty good idea” of his nominee for the position. Earlier, he had told reporters that “We’re getting very close to having a final decision made.”
The president would announce the nominee by Saturday and he urged the Senate to vote before the poll. His Republican Party has a 53-47 majority in the chamber.
He has hinted about two women, who were appointed as federal appeals court judges, as successor to Ginsburg. They are Amy Coney Barrett of the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Barbara Lagoa of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. On Monday, the president met Barrett at the White House and he would meet with Lagoa in Florida later this week.
Romney, who is a critic of Trump, said he supported having a vote on the president’s choice.
The successor of Ginsburg could move the highest court to a conservative direction on issues such as abortion, healthcare, gun rights, voting access, presidential powers and so on.
Romney, who was a Republican presidential nominee in 2012, said that for the US, which he believes is centre-right politically, it is essential to have a Supreme Court “that reflects centre-right points of view.”
Romney and fellow Republicans have rebuffed the arguments of Democrats that the chamber should wait until the presidential election is over.