Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden reflected on the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, telling reporters that she “stood for all of us” as she pursued “the highest American ideas of equality and justice under the law.”
Biden also said that a vote on her successor should not take place until after the election. “The voters should pick the president, and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider. This was the position the Republican Senate took in 2016, almost 10 months to go before the election. That’s the position the United States Senate must take today.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he would bring to the floor whoever President Donald Trump nominates. In 2016, McConnell blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to succeed Antonin Scalia, arguing that a vote should be held off until after the presidential election.
Biden spoke at the Newcastle Airport in Delaware after returning from a campaign trip in Minnesota.
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Biden recalled to reporters that he presided over Ginsburg’s Senate confirmation hearings in 1993, when he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
“In the decades since she has been absolutely consistent and reliable and a voice for freedom and opportunity for everyone. She never failed. She was unflinching in her pursuit of civil right for everyone. Her opinions and her dissents are going to continue to shape the basis for the law for the generation.”
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