The majority of the candidates seeking the Republican president nomination called for the Senate to delay any successor to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia until there is a new president.
Scalia died hours before Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate.
Front-runner Donald Trump said he understood the president’s desire to nominate someone, but still hoped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would delay.
“If I were president now, I would certainly want to try and nominate a justice, and I’m sure I’m frankly, absolutely sure that President Obama will try and do it,” Trump said. “I hope that our Senate is going to be able — Mitch [McConnell] and the entire group — is going to be able to do something about it in terms of delay.”
The real estate mogul also floated Diane Sykes and Bill Pryor, both of whom serve on appellate courts, as potential replacements for the conservative stalwart.
“This is a tremendous blow to conservatism. It’s a tremendous blow, frankly, to our country,” Trump added before laying out a strategy for the situation. “It’s called delay, delay, delay.”
After a lengthy tribute to the deceased justice, Marco Rubio told CBS’s John Dickerson that the vacancy is indicative of the importance of this election before adding that an originalist, like Scalia, is needed for the post.
“I do not think the president should appoint someone and it’s not unprecedented. In fact, it’s been over 80 years since a lame duck president appointed a Supreme Court justice,” Rubio said. “And it reminds us of this: how important this election is.”
“Someone on this stage will get to choose the balance of this Supreme Court and it will begin by filling this vacancy that’s there now,” Rubio continued. “And it begins by putting someone on the bench that understands that the Constitution is not a living and breathing document, it is to be interpreted as it was meant.”
Ted Cruz, the victor of the Iowa caucuses, turned the discussion to the issue of religious liberty, arguing that if a liberal justice replaces Scalia, religious liberty would be “undermined” for “millions of Americans.”
“We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that would undermine the religious liberty of millions of Americans,” Cruz said. “And the stakes of this election for this year, for the Senate, the Senate needs to stand strong and say we’re not going to give up the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation by allowing Barack Obama to make one more liberal appointee.”
Jeb Bush, fresh off a fourth place finish in New Hampshire, said that it’s necessary for a true conservative to be nominated, rather than someone who could simply “get through the Senate” and turned out to be a surprise, while not naming any names.
“I’ll appoint people who have a proven record in the judiciary. The problem is that in the past we’ve appointed people thinking we could get in through the Senate because they did have a record and the problem is that sometimes we’re surprised,” Bush said.
“The next president needs to appoint someone with a proven conservative record similar to Justice Scalia who is a lover of liberty, believes in limited government.” Bush argued. “Someone who applied that kind of philosophy, who didn’t try to legislate from the bench, that was respectful to the constitution and then fights. Fight for that nomination and make sure that nomination happens.”
John Kasich and Ben Carson also called for President Obama for hold off on nominating someone to the bench. Additionally, Kasich said that he wished that everyone on the 2016 scene hadn’t “run so fast into politics.”
If I were president, we wouldn’t have the divisions in the country we have today,” Kasich said. “It’s not even two minutes after the death of Judge Scalia … I just wish we hadn’t run so fast into politics.
“We should be thinking about how can we create some healing in this land. But right now, we’re not going to get healing with President Obama. That’s very clear,” Carson told the moderator. “I fully agree that we should not allow a judge to be appointed during his time.”
