RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he would nominate a candidate to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court who is “indisputably” qualified. He called on the staunch Republican opposition in the Senate to rise above “venom and rancor” and give the nominee a vote.
“I intend to do my job between now and January 20 of 2017,” Obama said. “I expect them to do their job as well.”
Obama told reporters at a news conference in his first extended comments on the fight over filling the seat left empty by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Obama cast the dispute as a question of how far Republicans want to push their opposition and whether the Senate can function in the hyper-politicized climate. Fights over judicial nominations are not new, he noted, but “the Supreme Court’s different.”
“This will be a test, one more test of whether or not norms, rules, basic fair play can function at all in Washington these days,” he said.