Brit Hume warns of 'brutal and divisive' confirmation battle over Ruth Bader Ginsburg replacement

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Brit Hume reacts to RBG death: Our political institutions undergoing 'stress test'

Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume on the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how this concerns politics pre-election.

Senate Republicans should think long and hard about moving forward with confirming a replacement for late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the country deeply divided ahead of the November election, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said Friday.

"Our American institutions right now and our political system are undergoing a stress test as difficult and intense as I've ever seen, and I go back to the 60s, when we had the tremendous upheaval and turmoil over the Vietnam War and the divisions that provoked," Hume told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" following Ginsburg's death at age 87. "What we're seeing now is even more intense than that.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG DEAD AT 87

"I think that the leaders have to consider what the effect would be if we plunged what would undoubtedly be a brutal and divisive confirmation battle into the middle of this," Hume added. "So, I think that's the threshold question, the threshold question is whether to even make a nomination. [President] Trump's instinct undoubtedly will be [to] go forward."

Shortly after Hume spoke, host Tucker Carlson passed along a statement from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in which he stated that Trump's nominee to replace Ginsburg "will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate."

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Further complicating matters for McConnell, Hume warned, is the possibility that not all Republicans will support moving forward with a nomination.

"If you've got people like [Lisa] Murkowski and [Susan] Collins and possibly someone like Mitt Romney not prepared to go along," he said, "you might not be able to pull it off no matter what you did."