President Donald Trump has yet to name his next nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States, however U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) has already publicly promised to oppose the nomination.
Trump on Saturday confirmed he would soon be nominating someone to fill the seat vacated by the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Addressing Republicans, Trump tweeted, “We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), an Alabama native, tweeted, “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) opined that “this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
RELATED: Alabama’s flags flying at half-staff in honor of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
While Jones has yet to comment about Trump putting forward a nominee since Ginsburg passed away on Friday evening, Alabama’s junior senator last year stated what he would do in a hypothetical situation exactly like this current reality.
As caught on video and reported by Yellowhammer News in 2019, a Democratic constituent at Jones’ University of North Alabama town hall asked the senator how he would react to Trump nominating someone to fill a Supreme Court vacancy from then through the end of the president’s current term.
Asked by the constituent what he would do “to make sure [a confirmation of that hypothetical nominee] doesn’t happen,” Jones responded, “I’ll do everything I can.”
The Democrat from Mountain Brook continued to lament that Republicans are in charge of the Senate rather than Democrats led by Schumer, thus allowing the GOP to confirm qualified nominees.
“Under the rules of the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell can just do about any damn thing he wants to,” Jones decried.
“I can go to the floor and speak about it, I can raise hell about it, but under the rules, there is virtually nothing I can do — except try to shame him, which I’m sure that that will happen should we have that vacancy,” the senator remarked.
“All we can do is speak up and speak out,” he noted.
Jones added, “I wish I could do more, but I’m just one of 47 [Democratic Caucus] voices to say, ‘Stop. Hold on.’”
WATCH:
Jones voted against Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation in 2018 but had not yet been elected to office at the time of Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation earlier in Trump’s term.
In defending his vote against Kavanaugh, Jones asserted that representing the majority of his constituents is not “the be all to end all.”
An early and fervent backer of Joe Biden’s presidential bid, Jones voted twice to remove Trump from office earlier this year.
RELATED: Doug Jones, Tommy Tuberville react to passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
