Trump Highlights Upcoming Supreme Court Nomination at Ohio Rallies

Trump Highlights Upcoming Supreme Court Nomination at Ohio Rallies
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2020. Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
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President Donald Trump said at two back-to-back rallies in Ohio on Monday that five people are being vetted for his Supreme Court nomination, and all of them are women.

The president visited Dayton and later at Toledo Express Airport in Swanton the same evening to rally his supporters. He won the battleground state of Ohio in 2016 by 8.1 percentage points.

“I have five that we’re vetting right now. It will be a brilliant person, it will be a woman, it will be a woman,” he told supporters in Dayton. Trump said that he will announce his nominee on Friday or Saturday.

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The president highlighted the significance of selecting a Supreme Court judge. “They set the course of the country in years to come, whether it’s on life, or the Second Amendment, or so many other things. They set the whole course of the country—very important position, the most important,” he said in Swanton.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said late Monday that Republicans have enough votes to confirm Trump’s next Supreme Court nominee.
The Republican president told supporters at his rallies that his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, has refused to share his list of potential justices “because [Biden] knows they’re too extreme to withstand any form of public review.”

Trump warned supporters in Swanton, “If Joe Biden and the Democrats take power, they will pack the Supreme Court with far-left radicals who will unilaterally transform American society far beyond recognition.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

“They will mutilate the law, disfigure the Constitution, and impose a socialist vision from the bench that could never pass at the ballot box,” Trump added. “So they don’t want to show the judges.”

He later added, “The Biden-nominated justices will shred our Second Amendment, eliminate the right to self-defense, and allow the government to confiscate your privately owned firearms.”

Trump also said that Biden’s nominees, if put in power, would remove borders and “compel the unlimited entry of foreign nationals,” as well as take on a pro-crime stance.

“They'll cripple the police departments, free violent criminals, shield foreign terrorists, and declare the death penalty unconstitutional—even for the most depraved mass murderers who kill women and children,” Trump warned.

Supporter James Alten, 65, of Avon, Ohio, told the Toledo Blade that securing the border is important.

“If you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country,” Alten said.

“As a veteran, I appreciate the fact that he strengthened the military, that he strengthened our border,” he added.

At both rallies, the president spoke of promoting jobs and the economy in the United States and maintaining law and order and public safety—recurring topics in Trump rallies leading up to the presidential election.

Another supporter, Derran Reebel, 48, of Toledo, told the Toledo Blade that Trump is not taking a salary in his role as president. “This guy is not connected to the establishment. He’s not a puppet. He’s actually in my opinion, the only president in modern-day history that’s ever worked so hard for the American people to try to protect our jobs,” Reebel said.

Biden has not been in Ohio since March. The Democrat visited an aluminum plant in Manitowoc, Wisconsin—another battleground state—on Monday.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden visits an aluminum manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on Sept. 21, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden visits an aluminum manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on Sept. 21, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Trump has several upcoming rallies scheduled this week, including one in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, another in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday, and another in Middletown, Pennsylvania on Saturday.