Last Updated Jan 30, 2017 10:16 AM EST
I have made my decision on who I will nominate for The United States Supreme Court. It will be announced live on Tuesday at 8:00 P. M. (W. H.)
If confirmed by the Senate, the nominee would fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who suddenly died last February.
At a breakfast with small business leaders at the White House Monday, President Trump said his pick for the Supreme Court is someone “unbelievably highly respected.”
President Obama had nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the bench, but Senate Republicans refused to consider his nomination because they wanted the outcome of the election to determine the high court’s future.
CBS News’ Jan Crawford has reported that the likely candidates Mr. Trump has considered are federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch, the front-runner, Pennsylvania-based Judge Thomas Hardiman and Alabama-based appeals court Judge William Pryor.
Originally, the president’s announcement was supposed to come later in the week. It comes amid heavy backlash from the executive order the president signed Friday that has blocked all travel to the U. S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Libya — for at least 90 days. It resulted in more than 100 people being detained at U. S. airports over the weekend.
