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Joe Biden: Replacing Ginsburg should wait because 'we're in the middle of an election'

Posted at 5:08 PM, Sep 21, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-21 18:52:28-04

MANITOWOC, Wis. -- In a one-on-one interview with TMJ4's Charles Benson, Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden said Monday that the nomination of the replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg should wait because "we're in the middle of an election."

After a campaign stop in Manitowoc, Biden claimed in the interview with Benson that nearly 4 in 10 Americans will have already voted by the time a replacement for the highest court in the land has been confirmed.

“We’re in the middle of an election. By the time that vote comes up, if it comes up, there will have been close to 40 percent of people that have already voted," Biden said. "It’s a violation of the spirit of the constitution to suggest that it should not wait until the outcome of the election.”

Watch Charles Benson's full interview with Joe Biden:

Full interview: Joe Biden talks Supreme Court, school choice with Charles Benson

Biden said that if Trump wins re-election this November, he should then be free to name Ginsburg's replacement.

“If in fact he wins, and maintains the Senate, he should go ahead and make his appointment," Biden told Benson.

When asked how his stance today differed from early 2016, when President Barack Obama was blocked from nominating Merrick Garland during an election year, Biden said there were nine months to go in that instance. As of Monday, there are only 42 days until Election Day on November 3.

Biden also said that if he is elected president, he would nominate a Black woman to be his nominee to the court.

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