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The White House is claiming a double standard in the Supreme Court nominating process, saying that Republicans who are criticizing President Biden for his promise to appoint a Black female to the bench did not object when former President Trump made a similar promise to nominate a female to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.
A number of Republican senators have been critical of Biden’s promise to appoint a Black female to the high court to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced last week his intent to retire at the end of the court’s current term.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., over the weekend said the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court will simply be a “beneficiary” of affirmative action and predicted that Biden’s pick “will probably not get a single Republican vote.”
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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called Biden’s promise “offensive” and said it is “actually an insult to Black women.”
“If he came and said, ‘I’m gonna 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 said on his podcast over the weekend. “He’s not even pretending to say that. He’s saying ‘If you’re a White guy, tough luck. If you’re a White woman, tough luck. You don’t qualify.'”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., last week cast the Biden administration as “the most race-obsessed, gender-obsessed” and a “hard woke-left administration.”
“He’s got a choice — is he going to nominate a pro-America, pro-Constitution justice, or is he going to keep doing what he’s doing and divide this country with a hard woke-left activist?” Hawley said. “We’re about to find out. I hope Republicans are ready to stand up for the Constitution.”
But White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates on Wednesday cast those comments as hypocritical, pointing to the Republicans’ record under the Trump administration.
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“When Donald Trump promised to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court just over a year ago none of these members objected,” Bates told Fox News Digital. “Yet now, before they know a thing about the record, qualifications or character of the nominee to be chosen, a number of them are saying outright that they will vote against her regardless of her merit.”
He added: “That is flatly wrong.”
In this Dec. 12, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before boarding Marine One. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
In September 2020, following Ginsburg’s death, Trump promised to nominate a woman to fill her seat.
In this June 15, 1993, file photo, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander, File)
“It will be a woman, a very talented, very brilliant woman,” Trump said during a Sept. 30, 2020, rally. “We haven’t chosen yet, but we have numerous women on the list.”
Trump weeks later nominated Amy Coney Barrett.
Official photograph of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett taken by Supreme Court Photographer Fred Schilling, 2021. (Supreme Court of the United States)
Some have argued, though, that Trump’s promise to nominate a female at that time is not comparable to Biden’s campaign promise to nominate a Black female – in part, because Coney Barrett was considered a finalist in Trump’s 2018 nominating process, when he ultimately tapped Brett Kavanaugh to the bench.
Biden first made the promise to nominate a Black female to the Supreme Court during his 2020 presidential campaign.
Bates pointed to former President Reagan and his 1980 campaign promise to nominate the first female to serve on the Supreme Court. After that promise, Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to serve as the first female associate justice on the Supreme Court.
The White House pointed to former President Reagan, right, who made a campaign promise to appoint the first female to the Supreme Court. (AP/Getty Images)
“When he fulfilled his campaign promise to confirm the first woman to the Supreme Court, President Reagan highlighted the unique opportunities in America ‘that [permit] persons of any sex, age, or race, from every section and every walk of life to aspire and achieve in a manner never before even dreamed about in human history,’” Bates told Fox News.
He added: “It’s for the exact same reason that President Biden will confirm another historic nominee, with the strongest credentials anyone could have, working in good faith with both parties.”
Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor testifies at her confirmation as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 1981. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Last week, upon accepting the news of Breyer’s retirement, Biden said he has “made no decision except one.”
“The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said. “It’s long overdue, in my view.”
This week, Biden met with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and committee ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to discuss the impending vacancy on the court after Breyer retires.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer announces his retirement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. President Biden looks on. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Biden, who said he intends to make his decision on a nominee by the end of the month, said he wants “the advice of senators as well as the consent” as he determines who will appoint.
At this point, potential nominees on Biden’s short list include U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner – the sister of Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams – and U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, the choice floated to the president by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
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Meanwhile, a senior Senate GOP aide told Fox News that Republicans “will not be lectured by the same people who held up ‘We Oppose BLANK [nominee]’ signs before nominees were even announced during the previous administration’s Supreme Court confirmations.”
“And unlike those same people, Republicans will treat the eventual nominee here with respect,” the aide said.