Poll: Majority of Americans Want New Supreme Court Justice Before Midterms
Despite protestations from Democratic leaders, the majority of Americans want President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court to be voted on by the Senate before the 2018 midterm elections, according to a new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll.
“More than six in 10 Americans, or 62 percent, said Trump’s nominee, who will be announced on Monday, should be confirmed or rejected before the elections in which control of the House and Senate are at stake. About three in 10, or 33 percent, said the Senate should wait until after the elections, the poll found,” the NBC report states.
“The vast majority of Republicans surveyed, 85 percent, said the Senate’s vote on the nominee should take place before the election. Roughly six in 10 Independents, or 61 percent, agreed. However, more than half of Democrats, 55 percent, believe the voting on a new justice should wait,” the report continued.
This flies in the face of the Democratic leaders who have called for the nomination to be postponed until after the midterms.
“Our Republican colleagues in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016 not to consider a Supreme Court justice in an election year,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor last week.
“The Senate should reject, on a bipartisan basis, any justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade or undermine key healthcare protections,” he continued. “The Senate should reject anyone who will instinctively side with powerful special interests over the interests of average Americans.”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker has said the Senate should not confirm Trump’s nominee until after special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of foreign interference in the 2016 election is complete.
Possible 2020 presidential nominee and California senator, Kamala Harris also insisted that the Senate confirmation process be postponed, as did California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Despite clamoring from Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged that a Senate vote for the Supreme Court nominee will happen before the midterms.
“The Senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on President Trump’s nominee to fill this vacancy,” McConnel said. “We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall.”
Democrats don’t have the filibuster option to prevent confirmation votes since they abolished filibusters for all but Supreme Court nominations in 2013 and Republicans took filibustering for Supreme Court nominees off the table last year.
Trump’s Supreme Court announcement is set for July 9.
“They are outstanding people,” the president said of the four potential nominees. “They are really incredible people in so many different ways, academically and in every other way. I had a very, very interesting morning.”
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