Biden says Supreme Court nominee to be announced in February
Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on President Biden's promise to nominate America's first Black female justice
Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker said the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court will be a "beneficiary" of affirmative action – and predicted President Biden's pick "will probably not get a single Republican vote."
Biden has vowed to honor his campaign pledge and nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
"The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota," Wicker said during an interview with host Paul Gallo on SuperTalk Mississippi Radio, according to the Mississippi Free Press.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., center, accompanied by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The Supreme Court Monday agreed to take up affirmative action cases involving college admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CASES AGAINST HARVARD, UNC, FOR ALLEGED ADMISSIONS DISCRIMINATION
Biden has not yet announced his choice for the high court, but said he plans to do so at the end of February.
The White House pushed back on Wicker's comments Saturday, noting that both former President Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump both had pledged to nominate women to the Supreme Court, while urging Wicker to have an open mind on Biden's yet-to-be-named pick.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates noted that Wicker lauded Trump's choice of Amy Coney Barrett as an inspiration to young women. White women have historically benefited the most from affirmative action, studies suggest.
"President Biden has established one of the strongest track records ever when it comes to choosing extraordinarily qualified and groundbreaking nominees - as the American Bar Association ratings for his 42 confirmed nominees demonstrate," Bates said in a statement to Fox News.
BIDEN SAYS HE'LL NOMINATE A BLACK WOMAN TO SUPREME COURT BY END OF FEBRUARY
"What’s more, when the previous president followed through on his own promise to place a woman on the Supreme Court, Senator Wicker said, 'I have five granddaughters, the oldest one is 10. I think Justice Amy Coney Barrett will prove to be an inspiration to these five granddaughters and to my grown daughters.' We hope Senator Wicker will give President Biden’s nominee the same consideration he gave to then-Judge Barrett."
President Donald Trump and Amy Coney Barrett stand on the Blue Room Balcony after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional Oath to her on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
During the interview, Wicker went on to predict Biden's pick for the court will not be as "nice" or "stately" as Breyer and would be more like Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was the first Latina justice on the court.
"We’re going to go from a nice, stately liberal to someone who’s probably more in the style of Sonia Sotomayor," Wicker said. "… I hope it’s at least someone who will at least not misrepresent the facts. I think they will misinterpret the law."
Sotomayor came under criticism this month after she falsely suggested that upwards of 100,000 children in the United States are hospitalized from COVID-19, many of them on ventilators, during oral arguments on the Biden administration's vaccinate mandates.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR ROASTED AFTER SPREADING FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT CHILD COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS
Wicker decried the way Democrats treated President Trump's pick of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused under oath by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her while the two were in high school. Kavanaugh adamantly denied the allegations and was confirmed only by Republicans to the Supreme Court in 2018 after a bitter fight in the Senate.
FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2019 file photo, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaks at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson, Mississippi. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
"I guarantee you this, Paul, this new justice will probably not get a single Republican vote, but we will not treat her like the Democrats did Brett Kavanaugh," Wicker said. "It was one of the most disgraceful, shameful things and completely untruthful things that the Democratic Judiciary majority has ever, ever done."
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Biden this week said he plans to pick a candidate of tremendous qualifications.
"I've 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 Thursday. "It's long overdue, in my view."
Fox News' Pat Ward and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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