Trump says he will announce Supreme Court pick on Saturday
President Donald Trump will announce his nominee for the Supreme Court on Saturday at the White House, he tweeted.
The announcement of Trump’s pick will set off one of the most contentious confirmation processes in some time, with Republicans looking to hold a vote on the eventual nominee before the election on Nov. 3 over Democratic objections that it is too close to Election Day.
The president told reporters Monday that he is weighing five different women to potentially fill the seat vacated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday of complications from cancer.
Trump is believed to be most seriously considering federal appeals court judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa for the seat. Lagoa is a former Florida Supreme Court justice whose selection could boost Trump’s electoral performance in the nation’s largest swing state.
Two people familiar with the situation said on Monday that Trump was considering three others: Judge Joan Larsen, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and was interviewed in 2018; Judge Allison Jones Rushing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit; and Kate Todd, deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president.
The president gave no indication in his brief tweet on Tuesday about which candidate he is leaning toward. But his eventual choice, if confirmed, would cement a solid conservative majority on the nation’s highest court for a generation.
As it stands, Senate Republicans appear to have the votes to confirm Trump’s nominee, with only two GOP senators objecting to holding a floor vote before the election.
