President Obama will wait until the Senate is in session to nominate a successor to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Reuters reported late Sunday.
The news service’s White House correspondent tweeted that an administration official told him that the president will not push through a nominee this week.
President Obama said late Saturday that he will nominate a successor “in due time.”
{mosads}”There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote,” he told reporters.
Scalia’s death, in the midst of a presidential election, is likely to spark a firestorm.
“There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year,” GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz told Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” early Sunday.
“And what this means, Chuck, is we ought to make the 2016 election a referendum on the Supreme Court.”
When asked if the Senate has an obligation to at least consider a nomination that President Obama puts forward, Cruz responded, “Not remotely.”
“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,” GOP hopeful Marco Rubio said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We’re not moving forward on it, period,” he added.