Watch Joe Biden welcome Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court in 1993

Both contenders for the presidency 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.

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