President Trump said he thinks it’s important to have nine Supreme Court justices prior to the election because the results of the election could wind up before the court.
“Yes, I think it’s very important. I think this will end up in the Supreme Court and I think it’s very important that we have nine justices,” Trump said on Wednesday.
Trump said there is a lot of time to confirm a new justice to the high court since his term goes until Jan. 20, “but I think it’s better if you go before the election because I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling, it’s a scam, this scam will be before the United States Supreme Court and I think having a four-four situation is not a good situation if you get that.” Trump was referring to unsolicited ballots being sent to American’s which he mentioned earlier in his remarks.
“I think it should be eight nothing or nine nothing, but just in case it would be more political than it should be, I think it’s very important to have a ninth justice,” Trump added. Of note, there were only eight justices at the time of the 2016 election.
Trump said he’s confident that the Senate can confirm a new justice before November 3rd, noting that many of his potential nominees “just went through the process recently” for other judicial appointments.
“I think the process is going to go very quickly. The hearing, I think Lindsey is going to call the date of the hearing… You can’t call it until you have the candidate and once you have the nominee, I will wait to hear what the date is, but from that point I would think we’d be fairly quick,” he said.
Trump said most of the Republican senators have already made their intentions known on voting for a Supreme Court nominee.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri also said there should be a vote on a new Supreme Court nominee before the election.
Trump made a similar argument Tuesday night at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh saying, “We need nine justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending, it’s a scam. It’s a hoax. Everybody knows that,” Trump argued. “And the Democrats know it better than anybody else, so you’re going to need nine justices up there. I think it’s going to be very important.”