LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — With chants at vigils across the country, and mourners lighting candles at the Supreme Court, the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being celebrated.
But with 45 days until election day, there's a question looming over the country: will President Trump and the republican-controlled senate push through a conservative replacement for Ginsburg?
That's where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell comes into play.
In a statement released on Friday, he made it clear, saying "President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate."
His opponent, Amy McGrath, is not a fan of that move.
"Total BS," McGrath said.
At a campaign stop at the University of Kentucky Saturday, McGrath criticized McConnell for holding up President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee back in 2016.
"Now in 2020, he has changed that McConnell rule," McGrath said.
In 2016, after conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, McConnell blocked Obama's nominee eight months before the election, saying the pick should be held off until a new president was elected. So democrats are saying he should do the same thing this time around.
But McConnell sees it differently.
In his statement Friday, he said he blocked Obama's pick to "check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president's second term."
He went on to say, "No senate has confirmed an opposite-party president's supreme court nominee in a presidential election year."
So the difference between 2016 and 2020 is the political affiliation of the president.
But McGrath accuses McConnell of changing the rules to benefit himself.
"You can't say in 2016 that in an election year, you're going to hold up a Supreme Court nominee, and then turn around and then four years later say, you're not. I mean, everyone knows that's total BS. It's wrong," McGrath said.
As far as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg goes, NPR reports that her dying wish was to not be replaced until a new president is in office.
