Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has slammed President Joe Biden’s pledge to choose a black and female Supreme Court justice, saying Vice President Kamala Harris was chosen on the same basis and has been a “disaster” thus far.
“Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex—not qualification,” Gabbard tweeted on Monday. “She’s been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria. Identity politics is destroying our country.”
Biden made his pledge during the South Carolina presidential primary, ostensibly in exchange for the endorsement of Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), a senior leader in the Democratic caucus and widely respected by the black voters who dominate the Democratic Party electorate in the state. He repeated that pledge in a subsequent debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Critics have noted that Biden’s use of race and sex would be unconstitutional in other contexts, according to principles that have been confirmed by the Supreme Court itself, and there are cases involving racial preferences pending before the Court.
Others have defended Biden’s commitment, noting that no black women have yet served on the Court. Then-Senator Biden filibustered a black and female judicial nominee for two years during the George W. Bush administration, part of a pattern of Democrats trying to keep minorities nominated by a Republican president off the federal bench lest they be promoted.
Gabbard, who rose to fame as a U.S. Representative from Hawaii who resigned from a Democratic National Committee post because of its bias against Sanders, and as a U.S. Army reservist who opposes many wars, has become a frequent party critic.
She the first Hindu to serve in Congress, and the first Samoan-American to have a vote in Congress (the territory of American Samoa is represented as an at-large congressional district with a delegate who does not actually have a vote).
Harris was chosen as Biden’s running mate despite a disastrous primary campaign, during which she suggested that Biden was insensitive to questions of race because of his previous rhetoric on the subject and his opposition to busing in the 1970s.
Gabbard and Harris tangled frequently on the debate stage, with Gabbard getting the better of Harris on several occasions.
She has struggled to establish public confidence in her role as Vice President, with low poll numbers and repeated failures on issues to which she has been assigned responsibility, such as addressing the “root causes” of the migration crisis at the border.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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