Sen. Susan Collin (R-Maine) claims President Joe Biden politicized the Supreme Court nomination process when he pledged to nominate a Black woman to the court while on the 2020 presidential campaign trail.
Collins told ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos that she supports the idea of having a black woman on the court but criticized Biden for his “clumsy” handling of the nomination process so far.
“It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be. So I certainly am open to whomever he decides to nominate. My job as a senator is to evaluate the qualifications of that person under the advice and consent role,” Collins said.
Asked about previous presidents who made similar promises to nominate a woman to the court like Reagan and more recently Trump, Collins explained that those cases are different.
“I’ve looked at what was done in both cases and what President Biden did was, as a candidate, make this pledge, and that helped politicize the entire nomination process,” Collins said. “What President Reagan said is as one of his Supreme Court justices, he would like to appoint a woman, and he appointed a highly qualified one in Sandra Day O’Connor.”
