The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last Friday from pancreatic cancer has inspired an outpouring of love in the nation’s capitol. Over the past two days, thousands of mourners have waited in line — some for hours — to pay their respects as she lay in repose outside the courthouse.
However, that outpouring of love and respect from well-wishers turned to scorn on Thursday morning when President Trump and First lady Melania Trump arrived at the tribute.
When the Trumps approached the casket, they were greeted by enthusiastic boos that evolved into a chant of “vote him out” and “honor her wish.” Trump fidgeted as he stared at the casket and was forced to endure the jeers.
Trump could only stand there and take it because there was no way he could respond while standing behind Ginsburg’s casket. The normally outspoken president’s silence during ridicule was punctuated by the large, black mask tightly wrapped around his mouth.
There was historic poetry to the “vote him out” chant. The crowd repeated it with the same cadence as the “lock her up” chants Trump has conducted at his campaign rallies over the years.
The chants had to have been especially unnerving for Trump, because according to psychologist Dan Neuharth, Trump has a “ravenous hunger for approval” and “needs affirmation.”
The “honor her wish” chant was inspired by one of Ginsburg’s final wishes. According to NPR, in her last days, Ginsburg told her granddaughter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
The president has ignored her final wish and has said he’ll nominate a replacement for Ginsburg as early as this weekend. The Republican Party’s decision to nominate a new justice on the eve of an election stands in stark contrast to how it handled Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Court in 2016.
Garland was nominated eight months before the election, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared any appointment by the sitting president to be null and void, claiming the next Supreme Court justice should be chosen by the next president.
Trump claimed that Ginsburg’s final wish was a false story cooked up by Democrats for political gain.
“I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi,” he told “Fox & Friends.” “I may be more inclined to the second. That came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful. That sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe Pelosi or Shifty Schiff.”
Trump is rushing to confirm a nominee to help support his false narrative that the Democrats will commit voter fraud through mail-in ballots and the Supreme Court will be needed to decide the election.
Trump has lagged behind his opponent, Joe Biden, in the polls for months, so some believe his only path to victory is to claim fraud and have the election decided by a court packed with right-wing judges.
“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court. And I think it’s very important we have nine justices,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday,
“But I think it’s better if you go before the election because I think this — this scam that the Democrats are pulling — it’s a scam, the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court,” the president continued. “And I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation if you get that. I don’t know that you’d get that. I think it should be 8-nothing or 9-nothing. But just in case it would be more political than it should be, I think it’s very important to have a ninth judge.”
