With President Joe Biden set to hand over the reins of presidential power to Donald Trump early next year, chatter has begun in Washington, D.C. about a move he could make before his successor takes office.
During a discussion on CNN earlier this morning, former Democratic lawmaker Bakari Sellers noted that there’s increasing talk inside the party about encouraging Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to resign so Biden could name her replacement.
“I think that is a good plan and it is something that should happen,” Sellers noted “Justice Sotomayor has been a more than able justice. I know she may be having personal issues that she contends with while serving on the bench, but I don’t want Justice Sotomayor to be another Ruth Bader Ginsburg in terms of staying too long. What does this mean for the dynamic of the court? The court to 6-3. If we are able to replace it with a Biden justice it will still be 6-3. The possibility of Justice Sotomayor having to resign or retire in the next four years is extremely high. You couple that with [Samuel] Alito and Clarence Thomas, that means you go from a 6-3 court to 7-2 court in terms of conservative versus liberal.”
Who might replace Sotomayor? Sellers suggested someone who would certainly rile up Republicans: Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I hope that Joe Biden makes the next 10 weeks as consequential as he can. I don’t care about drawing outside the lines of what Republicans may think about it, this is within your purview, you can do it and you should do it. One more thing, you have a vice president who has a legal pedigree to sit on the Supreme Court and let Republicans go crazy, ape, at even mentioning that option.”
Host John Berman was shocked by the suggestion from Sellers.
“Are you floating this, 7:39 a.m. on the East Coast, did Bakari Sellers just float Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential Supreme Court nominee?”
“Not only am I floating it, I want to stir up everything,” Sellers said. “I want people’s heads to explode so we go into the weekend just knowing the chaos has not ended.”
Conservative strategist Shermichael Singleton then joined the discussion.
“It’s an idea that I have not heard anyone mention,” he said. “Best of luck getting around Mitch McConnell, who is one of the most surgical individuals to ever lead or be in the minority position of the United States Senate. I think if Democrats were to attempt to nominate the vice president or anybody else, I think Mitch will do everything he can within the confines of the Senate rules to give the incoming president the opportunity to make every single nomination and ultimately confirm those nominations.”
“It can be done quickly. We saw it happen with Amy Coney Barrett,” Sellers countered. “It would take a lot of maneuvering by [Senate majority leader] Chuck Schumer and get Joe Manchin on board and [Kyrsten] Sinema on board.”
“I respect Chuck Schumer, but Chuck Schumer is no Mitch McConnell,” Singleton said. “I just don’t see it happening. Could Mitch do something like this? Yes, but Chuck, I would not hold my breath.”
Since the Supreme Court has already ruled that a president has immunity from all of his official actions, Biden could also add justices to the high court if he wanted. Who is going to stop him?
Things could get interesting over the two months.