Biden urges Unites States Senate not to confirm Supreme Court nominee before election

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Saturday called on the US Senate to refrain from confirming President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee until after the November 3 election.

"The Senate should not act on this vacancy until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress," Biden said, just moments after Trump announced his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Trump predicted that Barrett, a staunch conservative, will get a "very quick" confirmation in the Republican-controlled senate.


Barrett is "a jurist with a written track record of disagreeing with the Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act," the healthcare plan known as Obamacare that was adopted when Biden was vice president, the Democrat said in a statement.

Trump has been trying to end Obamacare "for four years," Biden said, but twice the Supreme Court "upheld the law as constitutional.

"But even now, in the midst of a global health pandemic, the Trump Administration is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn the entire law, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions," Biden said.