Gowdy says Trump can make SCOTUS nominations up until his 'last day' as president

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Gowdy on Supreme Court vacancy: President has authority until very 'last day'

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., addressed the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and weighed in on the partisan clash to nominate a replacement.

President Trump has the power to make executive decisions -- including nominations to the Supreme Court -- until the very end of his term, former House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy told “The Daily Briefing” Monday.

“In 2016, [Ruth Bader Ginsburg] said there's no constitutional impediment at all to the Senate taking up a Supreme Court nomination in an election year,” Gowdy, a Fox News contrbutor, told host Dana Perino. “The president has a responsibility to be the president through his or her last day. I mean, there's not some decreasing, sliding scale of authority based on how close you are to the end of a term.”

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Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87 and the controversy over whether the Senate should consider Trump's anticipated nominee to replace her has added a new dimension to a tumultuous presidential campaign.

Since Ginsburg's death, Senate Republicans have been accused of hypocrisy for pushing to fill the seat after they declined to consider Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia in 2016. Gowdy disagreed with that criticism, stating that GOP lawmakers were being consistent in their actions.

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“I do understand the distinction, I guess, between having both the Senate and having the White House," he said. "And I think that's what they're using as kind of that line of distinction now, is that President Obama was in a different party from who held control over the Senate. I think the better argument is to say everything has changed.”