Trump vows to nominate woman judge for SC ahead of election despite opposition from Democrats

Washington DC: President Donald Trump has said he will next week nominate a woman to replace the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, escalating a political row with the Democrats over her successor weeks before the presidential election.

"I will be putting forth a nominee next week. I could say most likely it would be a woman. I think I can say that. If somebody were to ask me now I would say that a woman would be in first place, Trump told supporters at an election rally in North Carolina on Saturday.

Ginsburg, a history-making jurist, feminist icon and a champion of women's rights and social justice, died of cancer on Friday. She was 87.

She was the second woman ever to serve as a justice on the nation's highest court.

Trump said he is within his rights to fill the vacancy in the US Supreme Court, a move that has infuriated Democrats, who fear Republicans will vote to lock in a decades-long conservative majority on the country's top court.

"We have great respect for the process. This has happened numerous times and every time there was a nominee as you know. There's been many occasions where frankly it turned out to be during a presidential year," he told reporters. I think we're going to start the process extremely soon. We will have a nominee very soon, he said, adding that there about 45 people on his list, but he does have a "short list" for potential nominees.

During the campaign rally, Trump asked his Republican supporters whether the nominee should be a man or a woman. The crowd cheered loudly for a female

candidate.