Psaki Defends Biden’s SCOTUS Quota, Cruz Crushes It

BUCK: First, a little more on the continuing — I don’t even think there’s a controversy, just discussion, we could say — discussion over Biden’s promise to nominate a black female Supreme Court jurist. Is it problematic to say you’re only going to consider one gender, one race, whatever the case may be? Well, White House press secretary Jen Psaki weighed in on this one. Here’s what she said.

PSAKI: I would note that there’s a long history here. Ummm, President Reagan promised the country he would nominate the country’s first woman to serve on the court, and he did so. Uh, former president Trump also promised to choose a woman just — just over a year ago. And there was no such complaint, uh, from the voices on the right who are speaking out now. Uh, but the president’s commitment, uh, is to, uh, deliver on the promise he made to the country, but there’s no question in his mind that there is a wealth of qualified, talented, uhh, black women to choose from.

BUCK: So I don’t remember — and I say that honestly. I do not remember President Trump saying he will only nominate a woman. He certainly didn’t say he would only nominate a white woman. I don’t remember, though, it was only going to be a woman, although if someone could point this out, that’s my memory. I’m not correcting Jen Psaki on this one.

I’m just saying, Clay, if you have a different recollection, if anyone out there, let me know. But I don’t… It’s one thing to pick a woman, obviously. It’s another thing to say I’m only going to consider a woman for this seat. Okay, that’s part 1. Not about whether there’s some strategy behind the scenes about whether you’re announcing it that way. Ted Cruz, though, hey, particular analysis on this issue. Play 13.

CRUZ: The fact that he’s willing to make a promise at the outset that it must be a black woman, I gotta say that’s offensive. You know, black women are, what, 6% of the U.S. population? He’s saying to 94% of Americans, “I don’t give a damn about you. You are ineligible,” and he’s also saying… It’s also an insult to black woman. 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, “Okay. I’m a nominating the person who’s most qualified.” 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.”

BUCK: Clay, that sounds quite a bit like what you’ve been saying on it.

CLAY: I think it’s the right argument here, Buck. When you really break down what’s going on in the grand scheme of things, this is a failure of Joe Biden — and, by the way, 76% of the American public disagrees with him saying, “I’m going to pick a black woman.” Look, I understand the argument that’s out there of, well, we’ve said before — certainly Joe Biden said, “I’m only gonna pick a woman,” and before that we said similarly something that was interesting.

Which is Ronald Reagan said, “Hey, I’m gonna pick a woman.” But really, Buck, when you break that down, that’s different because even if you say you’re going to pick a woman — and Trump may have said it for Amy Coney Barrett, too — you’re at least willing to take 50% of the overall population and consider them for a job. I still don’t personally think it’s appropriate at this point in this era to say, “Hey, I’m going to pick a guy,” “I’m going to pick a girl.”

But certainly when you specify a particular race and gender, you’ve gone from 50% of the population eligible for a job to 6% of the population eligible for a job. And I would just say, imagine the reaction if Donald Trump had said after Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed and he had the opportunity to replace her, “I’m only going to consider a white woman to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” the world would have come undone. I don’t think because Joe Biden says he’s only going to consider a black woman that the reaction should be any different at all, personally.