United States Republicans have secured the number of backers needed to push through a replacement for late Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Senator Romney expressing his support.
Republican Senator, Mitt Romney of Utah became the 51st lawmaker to indicate that he would support the confirmation hearing of President Trump’s nominee.
The move has secured a bitter political battle between the republicans and democrats who have insisted that there should be no confirmation hearing in an election year as the November elections approach.
President Trump in turn has promised to announce a female nominee in the oval office on Saturday while Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell has also vowed to hold a confirmation hearing before the November election.
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There had been a speculation if the Republicans could secure the right number of votes to go ahead with the plan before Mitt Romney’s decision to support the process.
Two republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had expressed doubts regarding their support for the process, shaking the fragile majority held by the party in the Senate.
Senator Mitt Romney was also not considered as a likely supporter of the move, having been an open critic of President Trump and voting to convict the president during his impeachment trial.
In a Tuesday statement however, Romney assured Mr. Trump that he would support a nomination hearing to fill the vacancy left by Ginsburg in the Supreme Court.
“My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomination is not the result of a subjective test of ‘fairness’ which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” Romney said.
“It is based on the immutable fairness of following the law, which in this case is the Constitution and precedent. The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party’s nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own.”