Hours after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement announcement set off a political earthquake, President Donald Trump told supporters in North Dakota he wants to pick a replacement who can serve for more than four decades and cement a conservative majority on the high court.
"We have to pick a great one, we have to pick one that's going to be there for 40 years, 45 years," Trump told a rally during at a hockey arena in Fargo, N.D. "We need intellect, we need so many things."
While praising Kennedy, Trump said, "I'm very honored that he chose to do it during my term in office, because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy. That's why he did it."
The sudden Supreme Court vacancy spiced up a political rally for Rep. Kevin Cramer, a Republican who is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in a key race that could decide political control of the Senate — the chamber that confirms high court nominees.
While Republican leaders want to confirm a Kennedy replacement before this year's congressional elections, Trump said the retirement announcement "makes the issue of Senate control one of the most important issues of our time."
Democratic judges, Trump claimed, will take away gun rights, "erase borders," "open jail house doors," and "destroy your freedoms."
While Heitkamp might support his new Supreme Court nominee because of political pressure, she will "vote no the day after the election on everything" if she is re-elected, Trump said.
Heitkamp did vote for Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, a justice Trump cited as a model for his second selection. "He's doing great," Trump said of Gorsuch, noting that he was a former clerk to Kennedy. "He's a star."
During four decades on the high court, Kennedy often provided the deciding vote on close cases; picking his replacement is a turning point for both politics and jurisprudence.
Senate Democrats indicated they may try to block Trump's eventual nominee, saying he is likely to go with a jurist willing to cut back on individual rights and expand corporate rights.
Democrats noted that Trump got the chance to nominate Gorsuch because the Republican-run Senate blocked a vote in 2016 on President Barack Obama's last Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Republicans said then that a new justice should not be confirmed during an election year, an argument Democrats are now picking up.
"Our Republican colleagues in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016 not to consider a Supreme Court nominee in an election year," said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the chamber's top Democrat.
Republicans noted that 2016 was a presidential election year; this year's contests are for control of Congress.
During his remarks in Fargo, Trump hit familiar political themes: bashing Democrats like Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters; promoting tax cuts and reduced government elections; extolling harsher enforcement of immigration laws; defending trade fights with China and Europe; and discussing his proposed "space force."
Trump also continued to brag on himself, saying at one point, “I’m smarter than anybody."
Trump also touted his travel ban from certain countries, upheld this week by the Supreme Court by a one-vote majority that included the retiring Kennedy.
"The travel ban ruling," Trump said, "underscores just how critical it is to confirm judges who will support our Constitution."
