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Jon Lieber, who leads Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, offers insights on the Supreme Court vacancy:
Will Senate Republicans, who stopped a Supreme Court nomination in 2016, because it was too close to an election, pay a political price for the change in tactics this time around?
Not only do I think they won't pay a political price, I think in many cases, they're going to benefit. Changing the balance of power on the Supreme Court has been a career-long quest for many conservatives and many Republicans. And that's why you've seen so many of them fall in line behind the President's nomination before we even know who it is.
At this point, do Senate Democrats have any hope of stopping President Trump from filling the ninth seat on the Supreme Court?
Well, there is an asteroid that's supposed to come by earth around Election Day and should it hit the earth and create a crater that kills all mankind, I think they probably have a shot, but short of that, it really seems like the Republicans are very motivated to get this done. They may have a change of heart after an election which they've lost the Senate, but I'd be really surprised. So I'd expect the seat to be filled this year.
Why won't the President promise a peaceful transition of power?
Well, I think the President won't promise a peaceful transition of power because he thinks he's going to win without mail ballots. And it's very obvious that his entire reelection campaign right now and strategy is based around getting Republicans to show up to vote on election day and then discrediting the mail ballots that come in after election day, which could favor Democrats by as much as two to one. So there's some evidence that the Department of Justice is in on this. They released an announcement this week that they found nine ballots in a trashcan in Pennsylvania. And this obviously won't affect the outcome of the election, it's only nine ballots, but what it will do is help to discredit mail balloting in the eyes of many Republicans who will then support the President as he attempts to de-legitimized every single one of these absentee ballots in the aftermath of the election.