President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden debate Tuesday at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
"We won the election," Trump said. "Elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all."
Biden argued that the election's winner should get to replace Justice Ginsburg, echoing Senate Republican arguments about letting the people weigh in after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016 and President Barack Obama nominated D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland to replace him.
Trump said 2020 is different because the same party now controls the Senate and the presidency: "They had Merrick Garland, but the problem is they didn't have the election, so it was stopped."
Biden questioned how Trump's nominee, Seventh Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, would rule on health care and abortion.
"I'm not opposed to the justice, she seems like a very fine person," Biden said. "What's at stake here is the president has made it clear he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. ... [Judge Barrett has] written, before she went to the bench, that she thinks the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional."
"The president is also opposed to Roe v. Wade," he added. "That's also at stake."
Trump dismissed concerns about abortion access: "There's nothing happening there. You don't know her view on Roe v. Wade."
Wallace pressed Biden on liberal calls to abolish the Senate filibuster that requires a supermajority to pass legislation and to add more Supreme Court justices for the first time since 1869, a plan opponents call "court packing."
"I'm not going to answer the question," Biden said. "Whatever position I take on that will become the issue."
Trump kept speaking while Biden responded to Wallace's question.
"Who is on your list?" Trump asked repeatedly, referring to a Supreme Court short list. Biden has not listed candidates he would consider, while Trump earlier this month expanded his short list to more than 40 names, including four current GOP senators.
Visibly frustrated after 18 minutes of Trump talking over his opponent and the moderator, Biden said, "Will you shut up, man?"
Later in the debate, Trump inaccurately claimed that he would have over 300 appointments to the federal judiciary in his first term. Even if all of his pending nominees are approved, he would not exceed 200 confirmations to the bench. The president also noted that he came into office with over 100 vacancies to fill.
"When you leave office, you don't leave any judges. You just don't do that," Trump said.
The vacancies owed partly to a Senate Republican blockade in 2015 and 2016 that limited Obama to 20 confirmations in his last two years, compared with nearly 70 for President George W. Bush in his final two years with a Democratic Senate. Several of Obama's stalled picks have since been renominated by Trump and confirmed.
In the first of three presidential debates this fall, Wallace repeatedly implored Trump to let the moderator ask questions and the Democratic nominee provide answers. Along with the high court, the candidates also addressed health care and the pandemic, climate change and environmental policy, and taxes and Trump's tax returns.
Tuesday's debate started an hour after the Senate Judiciary Committee released Judge Barrett's 65-page questionnaire documenting her professional history. She revealed that Trump offered her the job Monday, Sept. 19 — earlier than previously known and just three days after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died.
Earlier on Tuesday, Judge Barrett had her first "courtesy visits" with senators, especially those in leadership and on the Judiciary Committee, where her confirmation hearings are set to start Oct. 12.
Only Republican senators sat down with the judge Tuesday, among them Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and others on the panel including Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas.
They all said they came away impressed, adding to expectations of a confirmation vote along party lines, which would mark the first Supreme Court justice in over a century approved without any support from the minority party.
Although every Democratic senator is expected to oppose Judge Barrett if the vote comes before Election Day, the party has split on the courtesy visits.
"Why would I meet with a nominee of such an illegitimate process and one who is determined to get rid of the Affordable Care Act?" Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York tweeted Tuesday.
Many other Democrats ruled out a meeting, including Judiciary Committee members Kamala Harris of California, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. Some Democrats have said they're open to a meeting, including Judiciary Committee members Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chris Coons of Delaware and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
Durbin, Booker and Blumenthal have said Judge Barrett should commit to recusing herself from election litigation because Trump said he expects the contest to end in the courts and he wants his nominee seated in time to participate.
Republican senators rejected those calls for recusal Tuesday. Cruz said it would be like demanding President Barack Obama's appointees recuse themselves because Biden was his vice president.
"That's a ridiculous idea, that she can't hear election claims because she was nominated in an election year," Graham told reporters. "She doesn't have a legal conflict. ... She's just a vote like everybody else."
--Editing by Breda Lund.
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