Republicans secure Supreme Court replacement vote after Mitt Romney backing

Senator Mitt Romney gave his support, meaning the party now has the 51 backers needed to move forward with voting
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Rebecca Speare-Cole22 September 2020

Republicans have secured the numbers needed to ensure that President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee will face a confirmation vote in the Senate.

It came after Senator Mitt Romney gave his support, giving the party the 51 backers needed to move forward with voting.

Mr Trump's candidate will replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday.

But Democrats have argued there should be no confirmation in an election year.

The US President has secured the support he needs for a vote  
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Mr Romney's decision left Democrats with few hopes of blocking Senate confirmation of the Republican president's third appointment to the high court.

This would give him a 6-3 conservative majority. Mr Trump has said he plans to announce his nominee by Saturday.

Mr Romney, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, is one of the few Republicans in Congress willing to criticise Mr. Trump.

He even voted to remove him from office in the February impeachment trial.

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died
REUTERS

But the Utah senator dismissed Democratic arguments that the Senate should wait until after voters decide whether to re-elect Trump or chose his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the November 3 presidential election.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Sunday found that a majority of Americans including many Republicans also wanted the election winner to make the nomination.

"I intend to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the president's nominee," Mr Romney said.

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Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

Four Republicans would have to join the Democrats in opposing a confirmation vote to block the nomination. Only two have taken that position.

Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins said the Senate should not consider a nominee this year.

Ms Collins faces a strong challenge from a Democrat aiming to oust her in the November election, when control of the Senate also is at stake.

Ginsburg, a pioneering advocate of gender equality, died last Friday at age 87.

Democrats accuse Republican politicians of hypocrisy, pointing out that they refused to even consider Democratic President Barack Obama's nominee to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat in 2016 because it was an election year.

Mr Romney said that was not a concern for him, as Washington was split between a Democratic president and a Republican Senate that year, while this year Republicans control both.

"My liberal friends have over many decades gotten very used to the idea of having a liberal court. And that's not written in the stars," he told reporters.

Mr Romney also said it would be appropriate for a nation that he described as centre-right politically to have a Supreme Court "that reflects centre-right points of view."

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