WASHINGTON — Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump said Mon­day he expects to announce his pick for the Supreme Court by week’s end, before Jus­tice Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg is buried, launch­ing a mon­u­men­tal Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion fight ahead of the Novem­ber election.

Trump said he is plan­ning to name his pick by Fri­day or Sat­ur­day, ahead of the first pres­i­den­tial elec­tion debate. Ginsberg’s cas­ket is to be on view mid-week on the icon­ic steps out­side the court and lat­er at the Capi­tol. She is to be buried next week in a pri­vate ser­vice at Arling­ton Nation­al Cemetery.

Democ­rats, led by pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee Joe Biden, are protest­ing the Repub­li­cans’ rush to replace Gins­burg, say­ing vot­ers should speak first, on Elec­tion Day, Nov. 3, and the win­ner of the White House should fill the vacancy.

Trump told “Fox & Friends” he had a list of five final­ists, “prob­a­bly four.” He says his choice will like­ly be a woman.

As for the swift action, Trump said, “I think that would be good for the Repub­li­can Par­ty, and I think it would be good for every­body to get it over with.”

The impend­ing clash over the vacant seat — when to fill it and with whom — has scram­bled the stretch run of the pres­i­den­tial race for a nation already reel­ing from the pan­dem­ic that has killed near­ly 200,000 peo­ple, left mil­lions unem­ployed and height­ened par­ti­san ten­sions and anger.

Democ­rats point to the hypocrisy of Repub­li­cans in try­ing to rush through a pick so close to the elec­tion after refus­ing to do so for Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma in Feb­ru­ary 2016, long before that year’s elec­tion. Biden is appeal­ing to GOP sen­a­tors to delay the vote until after the election.

Gins­burg, 87, died Fri­day of metasta­t­ic pan­cre­at­ic cancer.

Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader McConnell is push­ing ahead with plans to begin the con­fir­ma­tion process, and the Sen­ate GOP lead­er­ship team was to meet Mon­day behind closed doors on next steps.

Trump allowed that he would accept a vote in the lame duck peri­od after Elec­tion Day but made clear his pref­er­ence would be that it occur by Nov. 3.

Announc­ing a nom­i­nee on Fri­day or Sat­ur­day would leave less than 40 days for the Sen­ate to hold a con­fir­ma­tion vote before the elec­tion. No nom­i­nee has won con­fir­ma­tion that quick­ly since San­dra Day O’Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court in 1981.

Pro­test­ers are mobi­liz­ing for a wrench­ing con­fir­ma­tion fight punc­tu­at­ed by cru­cial issues before the court — health­care, abor­tion access and even the poten­tial out­come of the com­ing pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Some showed up ear­ly Mon­day morn­ing out­side the homes of key GOP senators.

The pres­i­dent con­firmed Mon­day that among the top con­tenders are Indiana’s Amy Coney Bar­rett and Florida’s Bar­bara Lagoa, both appel­late court judges he appointed.

Bar­rett has long been a favorite among con­ser­v­a­tive while Lagoa has been pushed by some aides who tout her polit­i­cal advan­tages of being His­pan­ic and hail­ing from the key bat­tle­ground state of Florida.

Trump also indi­cat­ed that Alli­son Jones Rush­ing, a 38-year-old appel­late judge from North Car­oli­na, is on his short list. He has promised to nom­i­nate a woman for the high court, adding that his pref­er­ence is for some­one younger who could hold her seat for decades.

As the Sen­ate returned to Wash­ing­ton on Mon­day, atten­tion focused on Repub­li­cans Mitt Rom­ney of Utah and Chuck Grass­ley of Iowa for clues to whether Trump and McConnell will be able to con­firm Ginsburg’s replace­ment any­time soon.

Four Repub­li­cans could halt a quick con­fir­ma­tion and the pres­i­dent crit­i­cized Repub­li­can Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkows­ki of Alas­ka for oppos­ing a vote before elec­tions. He warned they would be “very bad­ly hurt” by voters.

Trump went so far as to dis­par­age reports that Gins­burg had told her grand­daugh­ter it was her wish that a replace­ment jus­tice not be con­firmed until the inau­gu­ra­tion of a new pres­i­dent. Pro­vid­ing no evi­dence, Trump sug­gest­ed that Demo­c­ra­t­ic polit­i­cal foes were behind the report, includ­ing Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intel­li­gence Com­mit­tee chair­man who led the chamber’s impeach­ment probe.

Schiff said Trump sank to “a new low” with that com­ment. He denied any involve­ment in Ginsburg’s dying wish but said he would “fight like hell to make it come true.”

A day ear­li­er, Biden appealed to Repub­li­cans to join Murkows­ki and Collins in oppos­ing a con­fir­ma­tion vote before the Nov. 3 elec­tion. It takes four GOP sen­a­tors break­ing ranks to keep Trump’s nom­i­nee off the court.

“Uphold your con­sti­tu­tion­al duty, your con­science,” said Biden, speak­ing in Philadel­phia on Sun­day. “Let the peo­ple speak. Cool the flames that have engulfed our country.”

Jam­ming the nom­i­na­tion through, Biden said, would amount to an “abuse of power.”

The sud­den vacan­cy is reshap­ing the pres­i­den­tial race, which to this point has been large­ly a ref­er­en­dum how Trump had man­aged the COVID-19 pandemic.

It seems cer­tain to elec­tri­fy both sides: Democ­rats were break­ing fundrais­ing records while a packed Trump crowd in North Car­oli­na Sat­ur­day loud­ly chant­ed “Fill that seat.” But it remains unclear if the high bench vacan­cy — which could impact every­thing from abor­tion rights to legal chal­lenges to the 2020 elec­tion — would per­suade dis­en­chant­ed Repub­li­cans to return to Trump or fire up women or sub­ur­ban vot­ers to break for Biden.

Repub­li­cans hold a 53–47 edge in the Sen­ate. If there were a 50–50 tie, it could be bro­ken by Vice Pres­i­dent Mike Pence.

There is anoth­er poten­tial wrin­kle: Because Arizona’s Sen­ate race is a spe­cial elec­tion, that seat could be filled as ear­ly as Nov. 30. If Demo­c­rat Mark Kel­ly wins and is seat­ed, that would nar­row the win­dow for McConnell.

Most Repub­li­cans con­curred on the need for speed and one named a prac­ti­cal rea­son: The nine-mem­ber court, argued Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, must be full if called upon to decide the out­come of a dis­put­ed pres­i­den­tial election.

Jaffe report­ed from Philadel­phia. Lemire report­ed from New York. Addi­tion­al report­ing by Lau­rie Kell­man, Mark Sher­man and Zeke Miller in Washington.