Trump says Senate must consider Ginsburg replacement ‘without delay’

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says her replacement must wait until after the November election

Mourners gather on the steps of the US Supreme Court in Washington DC after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 87, on September 18, 2020. EPA

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gestures to the attendees of her presentation at the National Book Festival presented by the Library of Congress at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington on August 31, 2019. EPA

The flag at the White House flies at half-mast on September 18, 2020 after the Supreme Court announced that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses in her robe in her office at the US District Court in Washington on August 3, 1993 after the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm her appointment as the 107th justice and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. AP Photo

A man holds a sign reading "RBG HERO" as mourners hold a vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the US Supreme Court in Washington. Bloomberg

People gather under a mural of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the U Street neighbourhood in Washington after the announcement of her death. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg types while on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in Italy in 1977. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader in 1948. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with her family at the Supreme Court in Washington. From left are, son-in-law George Spera, daughter Jane Ginsburg, husband Martin, son James Ginsburg. The judge's grandchildren Clara Spera and Paul Spera are in front. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her husband Martin and their daughter Jane in 1958. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader's engagement photograph, while a senior at Cornell University in December 1953. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband Martin. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's daughter Jane, born in 1955 and son James, born in 1965, pose for a photo. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Joan Ruth Bader at two years old in 1935. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children Jane and James off the coast of St Thomas in 1979. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via AP

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows the many different collars she wore with her robes, in her chambers at the Supreme Court building in Washington on June 17, 2016. Reuters

US Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the Supreme Court building on June 1, 2017. Reuters

Ruth Bader Ginsburgh holds up a drawing of herself with the words "My Grandmother Is Very Special by Paul Spera" as she appears before the Senate Judicary Committee July 20, 1993, the first day of her confirmation hearings for the post of Supreme Court Justice. Paul is Ginsburg's grandson. Reuters

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US President Bill Clinton's first Supreme Court nominee, is greeted by the first two women to serve on the Senate Judicary Committee, Dianne Feinstein and Carol Moseley-Braun, on July 20, 1993, before the opening of her confirmation hearings. Reuters

Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets a hug from President Barack Obama as he arrives for his address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009. Reuters

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends the lunch session of The Women's Conference in Long Beach, California on October 26, 2010. Reuters

President Bill Clinton applauds as Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepares to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, after the president announced he would nominate her to the Supreme Court on June 14, 1993. AP Photo

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shakes hands with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor along with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G Breyer before President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address. AFP

The first female US Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, speaks as fellow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg listens during a forum at the Newseum in Washington on April 11, 2012, to mark the 30th anniversary of O'Connor's first term on the Supreme Court. Reuters

President Bill Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg walk along the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, as they head to the Rose Garden for a news conference where the resident nominated Ginsburg to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. AP Photo

Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands during the national anthem at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalisation ceremony at the New York Historical Society Museum and Library in Manhattan, New York on April 10, 2017. Reuters

US President George W Bush's nominee to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge John Roberts, walks past Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the steps of the court in Washington on September 6, 2005. AFP

US Supreme Court judges Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg and the US Ambassador in Paris Howard Leach stand with French President Jacques Chirac at him at the Elysee Palace on July 8, 2003. AFP

US President Donald Trump urged the Senate to consider "without delay" his nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, only six weeks before the country's presidential election.

Ginsburg died on Friday at her home in Washington after complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Mr Trump's Democratic rival in the election, Joe Biden, said her replacement must wait until after the November vote.

Democrats fear that the death Ginsberg, a major liberal voice in the US justice system, will lead to Mr Trump nominating a right-wing candidate, which would shift the ideological balance of the nine-member court for a generation.

They believe that would have wide-ranging implications for the fate of issues such as abortion, environmental regulations and health care.

In 2016, Senate Republicans blocked Democratic President Barack Obama's pick for the top US court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell justified the move on the grounds that it was an election year.

But on Friday, Mr McConnell said he would act on any nomination Mr Trump made.

On Saturday, Mr Trump said his Supreme Court nominee would probably be a woman, he would make the nomination next week and he would prefer a vote before the election.

On Saturday, Democrats raised more than $50 million (Dh183.6m) in the hours after Ginsburg's death, demonstrating how her passing and the contentious nomination fight that lies ahead have already galvanised the party's base.

The money was raised by 4pm on Saturday after news of her death broke late Friday, according to a donation ticker on the website of ActBlue, the party's online fund-raising platform.

The election campaign had already delivered record fundraising totals for the Democrats, a sign of the motivation within the party to rebuke Mr Trump on election day.

But Ginsburg's death brought new impetus to the campaign, particularly after Mr Trump and Mr McConnell pledged to move forward with finding a replacement.

Although ActBlue has not yet disclosed who the biggest recipients were, Democratic challengers to Republican senators were in line to benefit from the influx of cash.

A group of Democratic strategists raising money through an effort called Get Mitch or Die Trying, which shares donations among Democratic Senate contenders, reported that within hours of Ginsburg’s death they more than doubled what they had previously raised.

"In tribute to the extraordinary life of Justice Ginsberg, I'm matching donations to this fund up to $10,000 tonight," Grey's Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff tweeted.