(CNN) Joe Biden and President Donald Trump sparred this weekend over the timing of the Senate vote on a nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as both men vowed to appoint a woman and the open seat became the new flashpoint in the 2020 race.
Hoping to shift the public's attention from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump moved quickly on Saturday to make the new Supreme Court vacancy a central issue in his campaign, announcing he would name a woman to replace Ginsburg this week.
Trump, who had been facing a potentially historic deficit with women voters in part because of their disapproval of his handling of the pandemic, addressed Ginsburg's death moments after he stepped on stage at his campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Saturday night, calling her "a legal giant" whose "landmark rulings, fierce devotion to justice, and her courageous battle against cancer inspire all Americans."
As the crowd began chanting "Fill That Seat!" Trump said he had not made a final choice but was inclined to choose a woman -- and then, with a theatrical flourish and no hint of irony, took a snap poll of the crowd to gauge whether they preferred a man or a woman to fill the seat of a justice who was an equal rights icon.
"It will be a woman, a very talented, very brilliant woman," Trump said, after the crowd overwhelmingly cheered for a female nominee. "I haven't chosen yet, but we have numerous women on the list."
For months, Biden has outpaced him by double digits among female voters. And as Trump has watched his numbers erode among White suburban women -- he clumsily attempted to appeal to the "suburban housewives of America" with his law-and-order message -- Trump seemed delighted Saturday night to have the opportunity to talk about elevating a female nominee to the highest court, noting at one point that he liked women better than men.
He called on Biden once again to release his list of potential nominees to the high court, but suggested it would be too politically fraught for the former vice president to do so.
View Trump and Biden head-to-head polling
On Sunday afternoon, Biden reiterated his intention to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court and that he will not release a list of potential nominees before the end of the campaign. He said it would be unfair to name a potential nominee because "she would endure those attacks for months on end without being able to defend herself."
The former vice president said he had spoken with Ginsburg's daughter and granddaughter Saturday night and said the nation should honor Ginsburg's desire that the next president should appoint her successor, which she conveyed to her granddaughter in her final days, NPR reported.
Biden was sharply critical of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's announcement within hours of Ginsburg's death that the Senate would vote on Trump's nominee to replace the liberal justice this year even though McConnell refused to grant an up-or-down vote to then-President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 on the premise that voters should have a say in an election year.
Biden said that the Senate should not act on Trump's selection, and added that if he defeats Trump in November, the President's nomination should be "withdrawn." Biden argued that "health care in this country hangs in the balance," along with voting rights and the immigration status of "Dreamers," who were brought to this country as children.
"The people of this nation are choosing their future right now as they vote. To jam this nomination through the Senate is just an exercise in raw political power," Biden said. "I don't believe the people of this nation will stand for it."
As Trump left the White House Saturday for North Carolina, he was asked about two top female contenders who were on the list of more than 20 potential nominees that he released in an effort to excite his base earlier this month, before Ginsburg's death.
During that back-and-forth with reporters, Trump called Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who serves on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and was a clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, "very highly respected."
The President also called Judge Barbara Lagoa, whom he appointed to the 11th US Circuit of Appeals in 2019, "an extraordinary person" and noted that she is Hispanic. Lagoa was the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban American woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Florida before moving to the 11th Circuit.
"I've heard incredible things about her. I don't know her. She's Hispanic and highly respected. Miami," Trump said, seeming to simultaneously tick off Lagoa's qualifications and how they could align with his election priorities, which include boosting his numbers in the Latinx community and winning in Florida.
As Trump sought to fire up conservative voters on the campaign trail with an opportunity to fortify the conservative majority on the nation's highest court, a fierce battle over the timing and speed of the nomination process was unfolding between Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington.
The President told supporters Saturday night that making a swift choice was part of his "moral duty," stopping himself at one point from criticizing the comments of Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, who said in a statement Saturday that she does not believe it would be appropriate to hold a vote on Trump's nominee before the election given that the vacancy occurred so close to November 3.
"Article 2 of the Constitution says that the President shall nominate justices of the Supreme Court. I don't think it can be any more clear, can it?" Trump asked the crowd. "We have plenty of time."
He mocked Democrats for suggesting the vote on his nominee should be delayed until after the election, ignoring the party's argument that McConnell set a precedent by sitting on the nomination of Garland in 2016.
"That's called the consequences of losing an election," Trump said of Democrats, even though Obama appointed Garland in March of 2016, some 10 months before he vacated the White House.
The sense of urgency to move quickly on Ginsburg's replacement is a priority not just for Trump, but also for Republicans more broadly who hope the nomination fight could re-energize the base and who believe that holding the Senate would be their best defense against a Democratic White House should Biden win.
Before Ginsburg's death, the disapproval even among some GOP voters of Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic was widely believed to be creating a drag on some GOP senators facing tough reelections.
Republicans now have an opportunity to re-engage some of their disaffected voters by pointing to Trump's extensive efforts to reshape the judiciary. When Trump released a list of more than 20 potential Supreme Court nominees earlier this month, he had appointed 205 federal judges, including two Supreme Court nominees, according to a spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in Washington were strategizing about what levers of power they may hold to drag out the confirmation process -- and what they'll do if they win the majority in November.
During a call with Senate Democrats on Saturday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said "nothing is off the table for next year" if McConnell and Trump move ahead with the confirmation vote this year, alluding to institutional changes that Democrats could make, including doing away with the filibuster and pursuing legislation to expand the Supreme Court.
"We basically have kept options open," Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told CNN's Ana Cabrera on "Newsroom" Saturday night.
"We'd rather see this go through the regular process that Senator McConnell announced four years ago," Durbin said. At that time, the Illinois Democrat said, Republicans "stepped forward and said that we believe in this approach: We don't fill vacancies on the Supreme Court in the last year of a president's term."
This story has been updated with additional developments.