Top Republicans guarantee Trump just enough support to confirm a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said on Tuesday he will support President Donald Trump's pick to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court.
• He echoed other top Republicans, including senators Chuck Grassley and Cory Gardner, who have reversed course and indicated that they will consider a nominee during an election year.
• Trump plans to announce his nominee on Saturday. With Romney's support, he is now all but guaranteed to have enough votes to confirm a new justice to the court.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney announced on Tuesday that he intends to consider and vote on President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat — all but ensuring that the GOP has enough support to proceed with the confirmation process.

"The Constitution gives the president the power to nominate and the Senate the authority to provide advice and consent on Supreme Court nominees," Romney, of Utah, said in a statement. "Accordingly, I intend to follow the Constitution and precedent in considering the president's nominee. If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications."

Ginsburg's death on Friday at the age of 87 sparked a political firestorm over the vacancy on the nation's highest court. Senate Republicans have been scrambling to secure a floor vote in an election year, while Congressional Democrats and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden denounced the idea, arguing that the seat should remain empty until a new president is elected.

However, with Romney — a vocal critic of the president and the only Republican senator who voted to impeach Trump — backing the GOP, the Democrats have almost no chance of stopping a confirmation vote from going forward.

Senators Chuck Grassley and Cory Gardner also threw their support behind Trump this week, marking an about-face for both Republicans.

—Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) September 21, 2020

Grassley's support is a reversal of what he said as recently as July: "If I were chairman of the committee and this vacancy occurred, I would not have a hearing on it because that's what I promised the people in 2016."

And Gardner, in 2016, said it would not be right for then-President Barack Obama fill a Supreme Court vacancy, eight months before the election. Obama nominated Merrick Garland on March 16, 2016 — or 237 days before the election — after Justice Antonin Scalia died.

"Our next election is too soon and the stakes are too high," Gardner said at the time. "[T]he American people deserve a role in this process as the next Supreme Court nominee will influence the direction of this country for years to come."

But Gardner backpedaled on Monday, saying, "I have and will continue to support judicial nominees who will protect our Constitution, not legislate from the bench, and uphold the law. Should a qualified nominee who meets this criteria be put forward, I will vote to confirm."

On Fox News on Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his committee had the votes to move forward — even before Trump announced his nominee.

"We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg's replacement before the election, we're going to move forward in the committee, we're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election," Graham said in a Fox News interview.

—Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) September 22, 2020

Yet even with this support, there are only 42 days before the November election — and even fewer days when the Senate is in session.

Still, the upper chamber is working quickly to fill the seat alongside Trump, who confirmed on Tuesday that he will announce his nominee pick on Saturday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said within hours of Ginsburg's death that a nominee "will receive a vote on the floor of the Senate," despite him setting the precedent for opposing the nomination of a new justice during an election year by blocking Obama's in 2016.

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President," McConnell said following Scalia's death.

Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, both of whom are facing tough reelection fights, have signaled that they think Ginsburg's seat should not be filled until after the election.

The election is in 42 days, but The New York Times reported that no Supreme Court Justice has taken less than 62 days to move through the confirmation process since 1975.

This article has been updated.