U.S. President Donald Trump will announce his selection for the successor to former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the end of the week – and ahead of the former justice’s own funeral.
The announcement has already drawn fire from across the aisle with Democrats claiming the president’s move is too close to the upcoming November elections.
It is understood Mr. Trump will name his pick by the weekend, ahead of the burial service for Ginsburg at Arlington National Cemetery next week.
Ginsburg, 87, died last Friday.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden led the protests, claiming voters deserved their chance to first go to the polls, the next president then to be tasked with filling the vacant post on the Supreme Court bench.
Speaking to the right wing Fox & Friends, however, President Trump said “I think that would be good for the Republican Party, and I think it would be good for everybody to get it over with.”
Democrats meanwhile are highlighting a similar case in 2016, when Republicans refused a similar move for then Democratic President Barack Obama.
“Uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience,” Mr. Biden said of the president’s moves in recent days. “Let the people speak. Cool the flames that have engulfed our country.”
The president said on Monday that he had “probably four” names in mind of which he would choose one – believed to be a woman.
