President Donald Trump and his adversaries mobilised on Sunday for an epic campaign-season showdown over the future of the Supreme Court even as the nation prepared to honour the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an outdoor viewing to be held according to pandemic-era guidelines.

The President’s determination to confirm a replacement for Justice Ginsburg before the November 3 election set lawmakers on a collision course with one another at a time when Congress already has major issues on its agenda, including spending bills to keep the government open past next week and a stalled coronavirus relief package to help millions of Americans left unemployed by the pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the US.

Undaunted by the prospect of such a volatile fall, Trump prepared to announce a nominee as early as Tuesday in hopes of pressuring the Senate to ratify his choice before voters decide whether to give him a second term and spoke multiple times with senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. Even as a moderate Republican senator reaffirmed her opposition to such an accelerated timetable on Sunday, others like senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee fell in line and it appeared increasingly likely that Trump may get the votes to proceed, although there were a few holdouts still to be heard from.

The political manoeuvring took place even as the nation was mourning Justice Ginsburg, a champion of women’s rights and a hero to the left who died at age 87 on Friday night. Former Vice-President Joseph R. Biden Junior, the Democratic presidential challenger, on Sunday denounced Trump’s decision to move ahead with a nomination and appealed to the handful of moderate Senate Republicans to stop the President from making a lifetime appointment that would shift the balance of power on the nation’s highest court without waiting to see the results of the election.

“To jam this nomination through the Senate is just an exercise in raw political power,” Biden said in a speech in Philadelphia, noting that Republicans refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s nominee after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, citing the coming election. “

If Trump wins the race, Biden added, then the Senate should consider his choice. “But if I win the election, President Trump’s nomination should be withdrawn,” said Biden.
“As the new President, I should be the one who nominates Justice Ginsburg’s successor, a nominee who should get a fair hearing in the Senate before a confirmation vote.”

A new poll showed that the American public agrees with him and opposes Trump’s plan to rush a new Justice onto the court. Of those surveyed by Reuters and Ipsos since Justice Ginsburg’s death, 62 per cent said her seat should be filled by the winner of the November election.

One reason Trump may feel differently is the possibility that he may not be that winner. Biden has consistently led the President in polls for months.

The White House hopes that a Supreme Court fight will make a difference when everything up until now has not, giving Republican voters who care about the courts, particularly those opposed to legal abortion, a reason to turn out for him despite any concerns about his handling of the coronavirus, the state of the economy or other issues.

New York Times News Service