Tulsi Gabbard Slams Biden's 'Identity Politics' for Choosing Kamala Harris as VP
17:05 GMT 01.02.2022 (Updated: 13:28 GMT 06.08.2022)
© REUTERS / LEAH MILLIS / U.S. President Joe Biden talks to reporters about Ukraine as he visits clothing store in Washington
Subscribe
Before being chosen as Biden's running-mate, Kamala Harris had only spent three years in the senate, and had dropped out of her own campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination before the first primary due to lack of support.
Former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has criticised US President Joe Biden's "identity politics" criteria for picking his vice president and a new Supreme Court justice.
Biden said last week he would only consider black women as potential candidates for the SCOTUS seat soon to be vacated by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.
That led to some speculation that the president was preparing to offload his widely-criticised number two Kamala Harris — a former attorney general of California — onto the Supreme Court.
Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex—not qualification. She's been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria. Identity politics is destroying our country.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) January 31, 2022
Harris, of mixed Tamil Indian and black descent, was hailed by liberals as the first black woman to hold such high office in the US when she was sworn in alongside the president last January.
But Biden's pick of running mate had only spent three years in the Senate, and had dropped out of her own campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination before the first primary due to lack of support.
30 January 2022, 19:21 GMT
Gabbard, who is of mixed Samoan ancestry and a Hindu by religion, expressed similar thoughts in a tweet on Thursday, stressing that the next SCOTUS appointee should be chosen based on their "commitment to uphold our Constitution and the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans".
Biden’s mistake: He should not be choosing a Supreme Court justice based on the color of their skin or sex, but rather on their qualifications & commitment to uphold our Constitution & the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans in that document which is the foundation of our nation
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) January 28, 2022
Biden may be in a hurry to get his Supreme Court nomination approved by the Senate before November's mid-term elections, when the Republicans look increasingly likely to win a majority in both houses of Congress thanks to his and Harris' handling of people-trafficking across the Mexican border and the chaotic retreat from Afghanistan.
