Biden grins as reporter asks whether Black Supreme Court nomination is ‘affirmative action’

President Joe Biden appeared to grin when reporters asked what he thought of the Republican talking point that his plan to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court amounted to affirmative action.

The reporter asked Mr Biden then question as he hosted Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and ranking member Sen Chuck Grassley, along with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Plenty of Republicans have repeated the talking point. Sen Roger Wicker of Mississippi told The Washington Post that whomever Mr Biden nominated would be the “beneficiary” of an affirmative action “quota” while Sen Josh Hawley told Sean Hannity that the move was “race-obsessed, gender-obsessed.”

Similarly, Sen Susan Collins seemed to throw cold water on the possibility of her vote for a Black woman to join the court.

“I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court. But the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best,” she told This Week on ABC. “It adds to the further perception that the Court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be.”

Others like Sen Lindsey Graham has been complimentary of the idea or praised J Michelle Childs of South Carolina, one of Mr Biden’s proposed picks.

“Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America. You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America,” he said.

Sen Roy Blunt told reporters on Monday that he hoped to be able to vote for the first Black woman on the court.

“I have no problem with President Biden's commitment nominate a Black woman. I'd love to be able to vote for a Black woman to join the court but we'll see what kind of philosophy that nominee has,” he said. There are a lot of great Black women judges and even more great Black women lawyers and we'll see what he comes up with.”