In response to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) plan to give President Trump's eventual nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a confirmation vote on the Senate floor, possibly before the November election, some Democrats are calling for former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, to threaten to pack, or expand, the high court.

Aas Jill Filipovich writes in The Washington Post, there is a belief that the GOP would be stealing a Supreme Court seat if enough lawmakers change their stance on whether a president should nominate a Supreme Court justice in an election year. McConnell and the Republican Senate, Filipovich writes, "have so repeatedly broken the rules, rigged the game, and stolen victories that it's become impossible to play on neutral turf," which is why she thinks Democrats should at least consider embracing the controversial tactic.

Filipovich notes the court hasn't always had nine members and suggests a Biden White House and Democratic-controlled Congress could sign and pass an act rather easily. But Biden has stated multiple times since he began his presidential campaign that he's not in favor of the move because "we'll live to rue that day." Additionally, other analysts doubt court-packing will catch on with the majority of Democratic voters — and especially swing voters — who share Biden's sentiment.

Indeed, there's even a sense that pushing for court expansion could backfire quickly. Tim O'Donnell

The battle over Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's now-vacant seat was already in full swing just hours after it began.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made it clear he wants to fast-track the confirmation of Ginsburg's replacement and said President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the Senate floor. The president, for his part, said Republicans have an "obligation" to confirm his nominee, whoever it may be, "without delay."

But Democrats also made their position clear. In the 9 p.m. ET hour on Friday, after Ginsburg's death was announced, donors gave $6.2 million online to Democratic causes. That's the most money ever given in a single hour since ActBlue, the party's donation-processing site launched 16 years ago, The New York Times reports. Then, in the 10 p.m. hour, Democratic donors set another record by giving $6.3 million.

ActBlue doesn't specify where donations go in real time, but one page created by Crooked Media — a media company set up by former Obama administration aides and home to the Pod Save America podcast — called "Get Mitch or Die Trying" (in reference to McConnell) raised more than $3 million in about three hours, the Times reports, and was headed toward $13 million as of Saturday afternoon (at that time, ActBlue had processed $46 million overall since Ginsburg's death.) The proceeds will be divided among 13 different Democrats running for Senate this year. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

That didn't take long.

President Trump on Saturday urged Senate Republicans to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice, who he will nominate, to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday night at 87. Trump told GOP lawmakers "we have this obligation, without delay."

Ginsburg's death has already sparked a debate over the vacant seat. In 2016, Senate Republicans blocked then-President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, because it was an election year. So is 2020, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has argued it's a different situation because the Senate majority and president are from the same party and, therefore, he is aiming to fast-track a nomination. Democrats — and some Republicans — have said a confirmation hearing should wait until at least after the November election, if not January's inauguration.

Days before she died, Ginsburg reportedly said her "most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." With Trump and McConnell on the same page about confirming her replacement as soon as possible, it appears whether her wish is granted will depend on how individual Republican senators approach the situation.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Saturday posted a photo to his Instagram account in which he is walking down a flight of stairs as part of his recovery after he was poisoned last month.

In the photo's caption, Navalny, one of Russia's most prominent Kremlin critics, wrote that he has a "clear path" to recovery, but suggested it will be a long one. He was removed from a ventilator five days ago and said he is still having trouble climbing stairs, pouring water, and using his phone. Still, he has apparently made significant progress since, he said, he was previously considered only "technically alive."

Navalny fell ill in August while in Siberia and was airlifted to a hospital in Berlin while in a coma. Multiple labs in Europe have confirmed he was poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok. His supporters suspect Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the assassination attempt, but Moscow has denied any involvement and has accused Navalny's aides of removing evidence, jeopardizing the official inquiry into the poisoning. Read more at Deutsche Welle and The Guardian. Tim O'Donnell

There has been no shortage of current and former American politicians on both sides of the aisle expressing their admiration for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including the last two Democratic presidents.

In a statement, former President Barack Obama called Ginsburg a "warrior for gender equality" who "helped us see that discrimination on the basis of sex isn't about an abstract ideal of equality; that it doesn't only harm women; that it has real consequences for all of us." Obama also weighed in on the possibility of the Republican-led Senate fast-tracking the confirmation of Ginsburg's replacement before the election, suggesting that Ginsburg herself would want her legacy to be honored by the Senate sticking to the precedent it set in 2016 when the GOP blocked Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland because it was an election year. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said 2020 is different because the president and Senate majority are of the same party.)

Former President Bill Clinton, who nominated Ginsburg to the high court in 1993, also shared his thoughts on her life and legacy, describing her "as one of the most extraordinary justices" ever to serve on the bench. Tim O'Donnell

Both presidential candidates paid tribute to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday night from metastatic pancreatic cancer complications.

President Trump, who found out about Ginsburg's passing in real time after finishing a rally speech in Minnesota, called her "an amazing woman who led an amazing life," and later, in a formal statement, referred to the justice as a "titan of the law" who was "renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the Supreme Court."

Trump's Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, echoed those sentiments, describing Ginsburg as "an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: Equal Justice Under Law." Biden's respect for Ginsburg has been on record for some time. Back in 1993, during her Senate confirmation hearing, then-Sen. Biden (D-Del.) said Ginsburg "came before the committee with her place already secured in history" for arguing "a series of landmark cases that changed the way our laws could distinguish legally between women and men, and you significantly narrowed the circumstances under which they could."

In addition to praising Ginsburg on Friday, Biden addressed the unavoidable question of the possibility a Republican-led Senate would try to confirm a Trump-selected replacement on the Supreme Court. The Democratic nominee made it clear the decision should not come until at least after the election. "The voters should pick a president, and the president should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg," he said. Tim O'Donnell