Trump makes campaign swing through battleground Ohio
President Trump made two campaign stops Monday in battleground Ohio, a swing state he won in 2016 and hopes to win again in November. Early voting has already begun in Ohio, and the president made sure to remind his supporters to get out and vote.
CBS News Battleground Tracker poll has Ohio as a toss-up state, with Mr. Trump with a slim lead over Democratic nominee Joe Biden, 50% to 49%. In 2016, Mr. Trump won Ohio against Hillary Clinton 52% to 44%. Mr. Trump is making a play for battleground Midwestern states like Ohio, where he believes his support is still strong. On Monday, the president insisted his lead is much bigger than that.
"And I just saw that we're tied in Ohio. I don't think so," the president said. "They say President Trump may have a slim lead in Ohio. They're not even campaigning in Ohio, come to think of it. Nah, they're fake polls. They're almost as fake as the writers themselves. Remember last time, they said 'oh he's going to lose Ohio.'"
Looming over every presidential appearance is the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who leaves an open seat on the court just weeks ahead of a tense presidential election. Mr. Trump has said he plans to nominate a woman to the seat, and intends to announce his pick Friday or Saturday.
"I have five that we're vetting right now," the president told his crowd in Dayton, insisting he will nominate a "brilliant" woman to the Supreme Court.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Mr. Trump's nominee would get a vote on the Senate floor, but the Senate is narrowly divided, with 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, and if all the Democrats stand together in opposition, should four Republicans join them, the seat will have to wait until next year to be filled. So far, two have said they do not support voting on a nominee before the election.
"We will fill that seat," the president said. "And will go quickly, probably announce the person, I don't want to make the men here angry, it will be a woman, is that okay? I don't want to have a problem with men. They'll say 'Trump is doing very poorly with men, you know?'"
Mr. Trump warned his supporters that justices selected by former Vice President Joe Biden would disfigure the Constitution, impose a socialist vision, shred the Second Amendment, allow the government to confiscate privately owned firearms, and remove the words "under God" from the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Trump claimed Biden isn't releasing a list of potential Supreme Court nominees because they are "too extreme to withstand any form of public rebuke."
— CBS News' Nicole Sganga and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.
