Americans are rallying against Trump and other lawmakers who are pushing for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement
- People all over the country are mobilizing against lawmakers who are trying to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the November presidential election.
- Nearly 700,000 people have signed a petition circulating on MoveOn.org, demanding that lawmakers delay Ginsburg's replacement until after the 2021 presidential inauguration.
- Protesters also showed up outside Sen. Mitch McConnell's Kentucky home Saturday.
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Thousands of people across the country are rebelling against the idea of replacing the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the November presidential election.
Ginsburg, who died on Friday from pancreatic cancer and left a vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, asked a few days before her death that she "not be replaced until a new president is installed."
Contrary to her wishes, lawmakers immediately began to plan for her replacement, with Democrats and Republicans engaged in a battle over the timeline of succession.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said in a statement posted to Twitter that President Donald Trump's pick for the seat "will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, indicated his strong disapproval on a conference call Saturday, saying that "nothing is off the table next year" if Republicans push onward with Ginsburg's replacement.
A day after Ginsburg's death, President Donald Trump weighed in, saying he would pick a nominee as soon as next week.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden urged for Ginsburg's replacement to be picked by the winner of the upcoming presidential election. "The voters should pick the president, and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider," Biden said in a speech shortly after Ginsburg's death was announced.
The debate over how soon to replace Ginsburg has also spread to voters. In an Insider poll conducted after her death, 58% of respondents said the next justice should be appointed after the presidential election. Only 28% of respondents said the decision should be made as soon as possible before the 2020 election. The remaining 14% of respondents were unsure.
Nearly 700,000 people have signed a petition circulating on MoveOn.org that demands lawmakers delay Ginsburg's replacement until after the 2021 presidential inauguration.
The petition references Merrick Garland, the Supreme Court pick nominated by former President Barack Obama to replace Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. McConnell blocked any hearing for Garland, saying that the choice should be up to the person elected president in the 2016 election.
"It would be a truly inexcusable act of hypocrisy and injustice for Trump and Senate Republicans to move any nomination forward," the petition reads.
McConnell felt the heat Saturday when protesters, carrying signs with the word "Hypocrite" and "Ditch Mitch," gathered outside his Kentucky home.
"Hey hey, ho ho, Mitch McConnell has got to go," the demonstrators shouted in a video captured by Hayes Gardner, a local journalist with the Louisville Courier-Journal.
—Hayes Gardner (@HayesGardner) September 19, 2020
McConnell's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.