Ted Cruz accused President Joe Biden on Monday of being 'offensive' by promising to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court because he claims it insinuates Democrats feel this demographic is not the most qualified for the job.
'The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset that it must be a black woman – I gotta say, that's offensive,' the Texas senator said during his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz.
'Black women are, what, 6% of the U.S. population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you – you are ineligible,' Cruz added.
'And he's also saying – it's actually an insult to black women,' the Republican said. 'If he came and said, 'I'm going to put the best jurist on the court', and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK I'm nominating the person who's most qualified.'
Cruz also said on his podcast episode that it's likely Biden could nominate Vice President Kamala Harris to the post opening with the retirement of liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.
Biden and Harris will host Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley in the Oval OfficeMonday afternoon to consult about the vacancy and likely discuss potential replacements that would do well with both parties.
The chance of Harris' nomination is highly improbable as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has already said Biden plans to run for reelection in 2024 with his No. 2 still at his side.
Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz said on the Monday episode of his podcast that Joe Biden vowing to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court is 'insulting' because it insinuates the eventual nominee is not the most qualified for the job and was instead picked for her demographic
Cruz also claimed there's a chance Biden could nominate Vice President Kamala Harris (right) to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer (left) just to get her out of the White House because 'they can't stand her'
But Cruz says Biden could do it just to get rid of her in the White House.
'I think there is a chance they name Kamala to the court, in part because they can't stand her,' Cruz said.
'One of the virtues of naming her to the court is they get to get her out of the White House and out of – look, the Democratic party is very worried that she's the presumed successor to Joe Biden, because her political negatives are so strong. She's just not very good at this stuff,' Cruz added with a shrug.
'I mean, you've seen the weird video of her with kids,' he said. 'That's almost like a Stepford Wives robotic. It's bizarre.'
'My guess is if Kamala was nominated, it probably would be a 50-50 vote,' Cruz said. 'Maybe she'd pick up a Republican vote. I would not be on the fence. I would be a hell no on Kamala if she were nominated.'
Cruz's name was at one time floated for the Supreme Court before.
Many politicians are up in arms over Biden's vow to bring a black woman to the Supreme Court, claiming he is disregarding the majority of qualified candidates to focus on one demographic.
Others claim the move is good because it helps make the panel more representative of how America looks.
Former congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard unleashed on President Biden on Monday over his promise to only nominate a black woman.
The Hawaiian military veteran accused Biden of playing 'identity politics' with his pledge to seat the first black female justice -–and said he did the same thing when picking Harris as his running mate.
'Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex -- not qualification. She's been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria,' Gabbard wrote on Twitter.
She added, 'Identity politics is destroying our country.'
Biden is eyeing a list of potential candidates to replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced he'd step down last week after nearly three decades on the high court.
He's using the 83-year-old's departure to fulfill a campaign promise of appointing a black woman to the bench, prompting swift backlash from Republicans who are concerned the president is putting race and gender ahead of picking the most qualified nominee.
Representative Tulsi Gabbard took aim at Harris on Twitter Monday morning while accusing the Biden administration of 'destroying' the country with identity politics by vowing a black woman will ascend to the Supreme Court
Psaki at her Monday news briefing compared Biden's pledge to Ronald Reagan promising to and then appointing the first female justice.
'There was no such complaint from the voices on the right who are speaking out now,' Psaki said, adding: 'but there's no question in his mind that there is a wealth of qualified, talented black women to choose from.'
She said Biden would be meeting with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and ranking member Senator Chuck Grassley at the White House on Tuesday to get their advice on a potential pick.
Some of his top candidates reportedly include: DC Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who Biden elevated to her post last year; district Judge J. Michelle Childs, a federal official in South Carolina who has strong bipartisan support from GOP Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn, both of whom hail from her state; and Judge Leondra Kruger, an associate justice on California's Supreme Court who twice turned down the position of Solicitor General.
Breyer (seated far left) confirmed last week that he will vacate the court, opening the way for Biden to nominate another, more young, liberal justice. The president will only consider black women for the vacancy
Biden promised during his campaign to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court if he got the opportunity, pictured are some of the front runners
Late last week Republican Senator Roger Wicker heckled Biden's future nominee as an 'affirmative action' hire during an interview.
Trump administration UN Ambassador Nikki Haley posted a January 26 tweet stating 'Would be nice if Pres Biden chose a Supreme Court nominee who was best qualified without a race/gender litmus test.'
And on Sunday, GOP Senator Susan Collins told ABC's This Week that she'd be happy to see a black woman on the court but that Biden was 'politicizing' the judicial nomination process.
'I would welcome the appointment of a Black female to the court. I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court. But the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be,' Collins said.
Meanwhile, a new poll shows that more than three quarters of Americans would prefer Biden pick the best person for the job rather than fulfilling a campaign promise.
An ABC News/Ipsos survey released Sunday shows 76 percent of respondents preferring Biden 'consider all possible nominees' compared to just 23 percent who said they want him to 'consider only nominees who are Black women, as he has pledged to do.'
Biden's promise even failed to gain much traction among Democrat voters, 54 percent of whom said they wanted the president to find the best person for the role regardless of race. The number is even smaller among nonwhite voters, at 28 percent.
But one unlikely ally the president has is Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said even his party was making a 'real effort' to find more women and minorities for key spots.
'Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America. You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America. Affirmative action is picking somebody not as well qualified for past wrongs,' Graham said on CBS News this Sunday.
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