I mean that is what he should do. I don’t think that would be holding them hostage at all. That’s what they want.

Make the election about the justice.

The hostage situation would really be making the senators vote against him.

Visions of Sheriff Bart taking himself hostage in 'Blazing Saddles'...

If Trump gets re-elected Breyer is 82 so good chance Trump gets two more picks. So right leaning folks who want more supremes as their sole reason for voting Trump don't need to be held hostage. Will they be pissed with the GOP if they don't replace RBG before February and get no more picks? I don't know.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

If he doesn't get another highly-partisan ideologue on the bench, he's going to have a massive amount of trouble contesting the election, even if he does get within the "cheating distance" (a few 10's of thousands of votes?... I don't know where that line is...). I doubt anyone around him thinks Roberts can be counted on to carry water for a guy whose ideas are shaped like the current president's...

But... he has a 92% approval rating among Republicans right now (https://news.gallup.com/...gs-donald-trump.aspx)... I think there's an active campaign by certain members of the GOP to create the impression that the rift between Trump and the rest of the American right is much larger than it actually is... Approval polls seem to repeatedly demonstrate that--in aggregate--they've found a candidate and ideology that represents them extraordinarily well.

First, I think you take a bird in hand. You take the spot when it’s guaranteed to you. Then you run on “the court” anyway, targeting Breyer’s seat.

But at this point, making the seat a focus of the election might motivate more people to vote for Biden than Trump.