Trump calls on Biden to release Supreme court list

Hoping to replicate a strategy that has long been seen as key to his appeal among conservative voters, President Donald Trump on Wednesday anunced he is adding 20 names to a list of Supreme Court candidates that he's pledged to choose from if he has future vacancies to fill.

list include Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Christopher Landau, current ambassador to Mexico, and Gregory Katsas, a Trump minee to U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit, among ors.

“Every one of se individuals will ensure equal justice, equal treatment and equal rights for citizens of every race, color, religion and creed," Trump said at White House.

Trump also warned his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, would select “radical justices” who would “fundamentally transform America," even though Biden has never outlined his list of potential choices.

release, less than two months before election, is aimed at repeating strategy that Trump employed during his 2016 campaign, when he released a similar list of could-be judges in a bid to win over conservative and evangelical voters who had doubts about his conservative bonafides.

high court is currently divided 5-4 between conservatives and liberals. While re is current vacancy on court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, has been undergoing cancer treatment, and three ors members of court are in ir 70s and 80s.

Trump has already remade federal bench for a generation. And any vacancy in highest court would give president ability to shape its future for decades to come if he is reelected in vember.

Trump has stressed that power as he has campaigned, claiming that winner of upcoming presidential election “could have anywhere from two to four, to maybe even five” Supreme Court justices to pick, though that would require an extraordinary level of turver.

Trump released two lists with a total of 21 names of potential Supreme Court minees during his previous presidential campaign and added ar five names in 2017 after becoming president. Trump’s two minees to court, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, were both drawn from Trump’s list.

Even in a race reshaped by pandemic and national reckoning over race, Trump's appointments of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh remain among his crowning achievements and are frequently ted at his rallies.

Trump’s rival for presidency, Joe Biden, has promised to minate a Black woman to high court if given chance. Biden, too, has said he’s working on a list of potential minees, but campaign has given indication that it will release names before vember election. Democrats believe doing so would unnecessarily distract from Biden’s focus on Trump’s handling of pandemic and ecomy, while also giving president and his allies fresh targets to attack.