Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said Sunday morning that President Obama should not appoint a successor to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
And even if the president does appoint a replacement, the Florida said that the Senate will “not move forward on a Supreme Court nominee until after the election.”
“Mitch McConnell last night was very clear,” Rubio said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Scalia, 79, died Saturday during a hunting vacation in Texas.
Rubio said on Sunday that the Supreme Court can function with eight justices during Obama’s last year in office.
“There’ll be an election in November and we’re going to have a debate about what kind of justice should replace Scalia and the voters are going to get to vote for a new president.”
He said the president can nominate whomever he wants, but “it’s pretty clear,” that the Senate is not going to act.
“We’re not moving forward on it, period,” he said.
If elected the next president, Rubio said he would try to appoint someone with similar qualities as Scalia.
“I think the president should allow the next president to appoint the justice to the Supreme Court and if it’s me, and I anticipate that it will be, I’m going to look for someone in the mold of Justice Scalia who, while irreplaceable I think, is a model jurist and one of the great jurists.”