Affirmative Action Pick News Today

>> well, gloria, i think youre right. listen, you said its insulting to those women. i think its insulting to women in general, black americans, all americans. its insulting, i think. >> well, and its insulting to the process. its insulting to the court. its insulting to the president. i mean, go down the list. >> ellie, were already seeing jabs from republicans over bidens commitment to picking the first black woman to the supreme court. nikki haley tweeting this, it would be nice if prez biden...

I dont, and juanita tolliver. they both are msnbc political analysts. susan, lets start with justice breyers retirement announcement. president biden has vowed to choose a black woman, because democrats hold the tiebreaking vote in the senate a confirmation seems assured. however, that handle called some conservative calling this an affirmative action pick, and minority leader mcconnell has warned against a radical nominee, quote. >> i dont think theyll be able to make it into a battle. joe bide...

>> what that was saying there, don. so, you know, look. lets pretend for a moment that this is purely an affirmative action pick, and he is only picking someone on the basis of there being a black woman. they had literally found probably the five most-qualified human beings in the united states to be federal judges. ketanji brown jackson went to harvard twice. has been a federal judge for eight years. um, and a federal public defender. leondra kruger -- my former colleague at the justice departm...

Both their judicial records and their personal stories. why is the lived experience so important? >> well, the lived experience and the judicial experience. you know, i am sick and tired of people saying this is an affirmative action pick. when trump said he was going to pick a woman, nobody said that, and president biden should just do it. its not about being qualified. black women have been qualified, and this is about affirmative inaction of presidents to not put a black woman on the court, a...

Have been underestimated. i have been looked down upon. i have been called a diversity fire and affirmative action pick. i know what its like to have to read more and study harder and think harder and do more work just to be seen half as competent as a white man, as a comparative white man. so i am absolutely confident that every single black woman on this list is going to be qualified. >> you bring up such a good point in some of the coverage that i have been seeing, some of the pieces i have b...

One, 232 years it has taken for the possible nomination of a black woman. it will make history in this country when it comes to the potential nomination of a black woman to the supreme court. talk to me about your reaction to that. >> well, i have to say, thanks for having me, i have to say i agree with your comments a few minutes ago, which is that it was essentially a prerequisite that you be a white man before you could be nominated for the supreme court. so this idea that when joe biden has ...

Selections perhaps or give us some tea leaves to read, he hasnt done that yet. >> if theres anyone that will give it the old college try, i know its you, out there on the lawn. leigh ann, we know now this meeting between the president and these senators has wrapped up. reactions so far from the hill, did we learn anything new? >> well, we got a statement from one of the people at that meeting, senator dick durbin, and he said that in the meeting they talked about how senator durbin wants the pro...

Been the same, they would have checked all the boxes of the left, so this is not really a critique of judge ketanji brown jackson, so much as the process, the process beholden, like joe biden is, to a far left agenda with dark money controlling what the president dollars, so this is not the way to pick justices and the system needs to change, tucker. >> tucker: by the way, the system is built on faith. we follow supreme court directives not because they or someone in our living room think on mak...

>> first and foremost, because weve never had one. >> when thurgood marshall became a supreme court justice, evrything changed. so what we want to see is someone who can bring her legal acumen and her lived experience to those conversations and to those deliberations. >> the reality is we actually think that the absence of a black woman on this court is an abject failure, frankly. >> reporter: but what do you say to people who say, "this is just an affirmative action pick"? >> its an interesting...

>> yeah, i had the -- i made the mistake of thinking that when republicans initially started signalling that they were going to call judge jackson unqualified or an affirmative action pick, but then backed off of that, that they wouldnt take this base attack culture war, often racist approach to the questioning, and i was proven very, very wrong. this was not about judge jackson. it was not about her qualifications, which are exemplary. it was about a certain number of republicans who were bent ...