Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Almost immediately after news broke on Wednesday that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of this term, speculation began as to who President Joe Biden might announce to replace the left-leaning justice.
Pundits were quick to refer to a March 2020 campaign promise by Biden to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Names like federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was on President Barack Obama’s shortlist for the court in 2016, and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger began circulating as serious contenders in outlets like NPR and CNN.
However, over on Fox News, the panel on Outnumbered quickly offered up another name: Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Race is at the heart of just about everything we see from the left-right now. It is so much in the nomenclature of politics that are most divisive in America right now, not bringing us together. Would this further divide?” co-host Harris Faulkner remarked.
“So this person has to be a woman, she has to be Black and she&
Former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was quick to agree, saying, “I am glad you said that Harris.”
“Politically speaking, if you are not happy with the vice president and you want her in a different role, there’s no greater role than the Supreme Court,” McEnany continued, noting that this was just “speculation,” but adding “she’s at least on the shortlist.”
Fox’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier, poured some cold water on the theory later in the day, noting, “I do think it’s a stretch to get there.”
There are of course a few very serious political issues with Faulkner and McEnany’s analysis. First of all, with the current 50/50 partisan split, Harris is the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate, and removing her from that position would effectively end the Democratic Party’s majority in the upper chamber.
Secondly, if Harris were to leave the vice presidency a 50/50 Senate would then be partly responsible for confirming her replacement. According to the 25th Amendment, a vice president must be confirmed by a majority vote in both houses of Congress, meaning Republicans in the Senate, or any individual Democrat, would be
A president governing without a vice president has been rare in American history and is unlikely something that 79-year-old Biden would be willing to do. Additionally, if the Republicans manage to flip the House in the 2022 midterms, the GOP speaker would then be next in line for the presidency if Harris were not replaced ahead of the next Congress taking office — a likely prospect in an evenly divided U.S. Senate.
Despite these serious complications, NBC’s Peter Alexander and Fox News’ Peter Doocy still asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday whether or not Harris was being considered to replace Breyer.
Psaki unequivocally shot down the suggestion, saying Biden “has every intention of running for reelection and running for reelection with Vice President Harris on the ticket as his partner.”
Neither a sitting vice president nor a past vice president has ever been nominated to the Supreme Court and it’s all but guaranteed that is not going to change under Biden — at least not anytime soon. Who knows what might happen in the future, maybe Biden is reelected and the situation in the House and Senate favors such a nomination, but given the current political situation it seems all but impossible, as fun as it may be as a media narrative.
While the Outnumbered hosts’ theory of Biden nominating Harris certainly serves to highlight the network
That honor went to conservative commentator Bill Kristol, who plotted a centrist reverie in which Breyer’s resignation results in Biden-Romney unity ticket to save the country in just four quick steps.
Kristol tweeted:
Straightforward from here.June 30: Court overturns Roe.July 1: Breyer resigns, says Court “needs aggressive progressive justices.”July 4. Biden picks Harris for Court. Harris resigns as VP.July 5. Biden picks Romney as VP, says national unity needed for the world crisis.