As Republican senators reacted to President Joe Biden's Supreme Courtroom nominee on Friday—with some backing the president's decide and others criticizing his dedication to appoint the primary Black girl to the excessive courtroom—one senator took situation with the timing of Biden's announcement, arguing that it was "inappropriate" given the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"President Biden's announcement simply days after an unprovoked full scale invasion by Russia is extraordinarily inappropriate," Senator Marsha Blackburntweeted on Friday. "As soon as once more, Biden is placing the calls for of the unconventional progressive left forward of what's greatest for our nation."

On Friday morning, Biden introduced he would nominate Decide Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill Justice Stephen Breyer's seat as soon as he retires.

The announcement comes simply two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sending the worldwide neighborhood right into a tailspin because the U.S. and different NATO allies introduced new sanctions towards Russia in hopes of stopping a world struggle from erupting.

Whereas Biden has confronted widespread criticisms from Republican leaders for his response to the battle in jap Europe, few had taken purpose on the president for his nominee as a result of coinciding of his announcement with the assault on Ukraine.

Biden's SCOTUS choice had been anticipated to come back earlier than the tip of the month.

Though different senators have not but echoed Blackburn's remarks, this isn't the primary time Republicans have used timing to argue towards a Democratic president's decide for the Supreme Courtroom.

Again in 2016—when former President Barack Obama nominated now-Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland to the seat left vacant by the demise of Justice Antonin Scalia—the Senate's Republican majority refused to contemplate Garland's nomination in an unprecedented transfer, citing the election 12 months.

Arguing that the winner of the 2016 presidential election ought to rightfully choose Scalia's substitute, McConnell efficiently delayed the nomination till Donald Trump was elected to the Oval Workplace.

Upon taking workplace, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch inside his first two weeks as president. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate in April 2017.

Marsha Blackburn Biden SCOTUS Ukraine Russia Jackson
"As soon as once more, Biden is placing the calls for of the unconventional progressive left forward of what's greatest for our nation," Senator Marsha Blackburn stated in response to the announcement of the president's Supreme Courtroom nominee. Blackburn seems throughout a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee listening to on Capitol Hill, December 8, 2021, in Washington, DC.Drew Angerer/Getty

Since Breyer introduced his upcoming retirement, the GOP has slammed Biden for vowing to diversify the Supreme Courtroom by nominating the primary Black feminine decide to the bench—a message Blackburn doubled down on this week.

"A Supreme Courtroom nominee have to be dedicated to upholding the rule of regulation and Structure as written," the senator tweeted. "We should not blindly affirm a justice to function a rubber stamp for a radical progressive agenda."

On Friday, Blackburn additionally accused the president of utilizing the announcement as "an try to cover that for over three months Biden refused to levy sanctions towards Russia or ship army help to Ukraine," however added that she nonetheless plans to fulfill with Jackson in particular person.

"I can't maintain President Biden's failure to guide our nation towards his nominee," the Tennessee Republican stated.

Blackburn is amongst various Republican senators, like Senators Ted Cruz and Roger Wick, who've argued that whoever Biden picks could be a "beneficiary" of affirmative motion. Cruz went as far as to say that deciding on a Black girl could be "an insult to Black girls."

Nevertheless, different Republican leaders, like Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and Senator Susan Collins have signaled they might welcome the appointment of a Black girl to the Supreme Courtroom.

"I heard a few folks say they thought it was inappropriate for the president to announce he was going to place an African-American girl on the courtroom," McConnell stated at an occasion in Kentucky earlier this week. "Actually, I didn't suppose that was inappropriate."

Final 12 months, Collins, alongside Senators Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham, voted to verify Jackson to the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Regardless of Graham's vote to verify Jackson, the senator has lobbied for a unique Black feminine decide who was being interviewed by the president—Decide J. Michelle Childs, who serves on the federal bench in his house state of South Carolina.

"The assaults by the Left on Decide Childs from South Carolina apparently labored," Graham tweeted on Friday.

Newsweek reached out to the White Home for remark however didn't hear again earlier than publication.