Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton added his name to the list of senators pushing for a vote on the person President Trump will nominate to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
“The Senate will exercise our constitutional duty,” the Republican senator told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, adding, “We will move forward without delay.”
Pointing out that the confirmation process for Ginsburg took only 43 days, Cotton said it is possible that there is enough time to confirm a new nominee before the new Congress.
“There will be a vote. There have been some cases like Justice Ginsburg herself that took less than 44 days,” he said. “There have been other cases which it took longer, so it’s too soon to say right now.”
When questioned about why he didn’t support voting on former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, ahead of the 2016 election, Cotton insisted that the situation in 2020 was different.
“In 2014, the American people elected a Republican majority to the Senate to put the brakes on President Obama’s judicial nominations. In 2018 we had a referendum on this question. Just a month before the 2018 midterms we had the vote on Justice Kavanaugh. There could not have been a clearer mandate,” Cotton said.
Ginsburg died of complications from cancer Friday, sparking speculation on what might happen to her vacated seat on the court. Trump indicated he planned to nominate her replacement, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to hold a vote on the president’s nominee.
Democrats have decried the decision to nominate a replacement, pointing to the successful Republican election-year effort to hold up the nomination of Garland in 2016.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler voiced support this weekend for packing the court with more justices in 2021 should Republicans move forward with their plans.
Cotton was recently added to Trump’s list of potential nominees, though his nomination this year is unlikely after Trump voiced his intention to choose a woman.
