The Washington math goes like this:
1. Joe Biden said on the 2020 campaign trail that he would like to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.
2. Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring from the court. (He is expected to formally announce his decision on Thursday.)
3. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is African American and South Asian American, has struggled in adjusting to the #2 job.
And bingo bango began the chatter about Kamala Harris on the court – she’s a lawyer and was attorney general of California, after all! – and Biden being free to pick a new VP.
Fox’s Harris Faulkner was quick to jump on the notion. “So this person has to be a woman, she has to be Black and she’s gotta be younger. Anybody thinking what I’m thinking,” she asked. “They don’t know what to do with Kamala Harris in the White House right now. And I can’t be the only person seeing this.”
Tweeted conservative pundit Bill Kristol (maybe) jokingly:
“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.”
This, is, um, not going to happen. For a few reasons.
First, Harris has chosen a life in elected office; she’s served continuously in office since 2004, when she was elected district attorney of San Francisco.
Second, she is next in line to be the president of the United States. Whenever Biden decides to call it quits (or loses reelection), she is, without question, the early favorite to replace or follow him.
Third, while the Biden team has said they want to look for SCOTUS candidates with different resumes from the people currently on the court, there are plenty of credible candidates currently in the judiciary.
The Point: Playing fantasy politics – candidates swapping offices to create new openings – is a favorite parlor game of Washington’s permanent political class. But, on this one, it ain’t happening.