At a rally Saturday night in North Carolina, President Donald Trump promised a fired-up crowd chanting “fill that seat” that he will nominate a woman to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week.
Trump begins by saying nice things about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Trump’s audience isn’t thrilled about it but politely refrains from booing. But he immediately pivots to how he plans to quickly fill the seat, prompting huge applause & chants of “fill that seat” that he encourages. pic.twitter.com/AHyhtxN2Rx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 19, 2020
“I actually like women much more than I like men,” Trump said to cheers, and encouraged his supporters to make “Fill that seat!” T-shirts.
Trump also touched on more familiar themes over the course of his campaign rally in Fayetteville — which marked his fourth visit to the battleground state of North Carolina in as many weeks — celebrating violence against the media, spreading falsehoods about the coronavirus, and attacking school history curriculums that he claimed are not “pro-American” but rather “toxic left-wing propaganda.”
The energy of the campaign event epitomized how the president has been capitalizing on Ginsburg’s death — and the vacancy on the Supreme Court it created — as an opportunity to excite and mobilize his political base amid a series of crises that have reduced his odds of reelection, according to months of national polling.
Trump began his remarks by offering a brief, nonpartisan note of appreciation for Ginsburg, who died on Friday due to complications related to pancreatic cancer.
“You may agree, you may not disagree with her, but she was an inspiration to a tremendous amount of people; I say all Americans,” Trump said, evoking relatively quiet clapping
