Biden blasts Trump's Supreme Court plan

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday (September 20) blasted U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to vote quickly on a Supreme Court nominee to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"To jam this nomination through the Senate is just an exercise in raw political power."

Biden urged Senate Republicans to respect Ginsburg's dying wish that she "not be replaced until a new president is installed."

"As a nation, we should heed her final call to us, not as a personal service to her but as a service to the country."

The former vice president rejected the idea of releasing the names of potential nominees, saying that doing so, as Trump did, could improperly influence those candidates' decisions in their current court roles as well as subject them to "unrelenting political attacks."

Biden reiterated his pledge to nominate an African-American woman to the court, which would be a historic first, if he has the opportunity.

The former Vice President's remarks come as a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Sunday found that a majority of Americans believe whoever wins the election should get to pick the Supreme Court nominee.

Sixty-two percent of Americans agreed that November's winner should choose the nominee, suggesting that many object to Trump's plan to push through another lifetime appointee to the Supreme Court - which would be his third.

Eight out of 10 Democrats and half of the Republicans polled agreed that the appointment should wait until after the election.