Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Thursday he thinks President Obama will announce a nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in about three weeks.
“The president’s going to pick someone that is going to be good,” he said on MSNBC on Thursday. “He takes a very, very personal interest in this.”
{mosads}He said after Obama makes a nomination, the Republicans will hold hearings and put it on the Senate floor. He added he thinks they will “be forced, as much as they hate to,” to vote for this “very superior” candidate.
Obama said after Scalia died that he planned to nominate someone for the position before the end of his term. Earlier this week, he scolded Republican senators who threatened not to hold a vote on anyone he nominates.
“The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,” he said in remarks at a press conference following an international summit in California.
“When there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the president is to nominate someone, the Senate is to consider that nomination and either they disapprove of that nominee or that nominee is elevated to the Supreme Court,” the president said. “Historically, this has not been viewed as a question, there is no unwritten law that says it can only be done on off years.
“I intend to do my job between now and Jan. 20, 2017,” Obama said. “I expect them to do their job as well.”
Many Republican presidential candidates have argued that the Supreme Court nomination should be determined by the next president and should not be chosen during an election year. Scalia died over the weekend in Texas at age 79.