WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris took a victory lap on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court at a White House event on Monday, candidly acknowledging afterward: “I went off script a little bit.”
While talking about access to the ballot box, Harris brought Jackson up at a Black History Month event.
“I felt such pride and such hope this past Friday when President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Harris began. “Because as we all know, elections matter. And when folks vote, they order what they want, and in this case they got what they asked for.”
Biden nominated the Miami-raised judge last week to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at the end of the current court term. Jackson would be the first Black woman to sit on the high court, if she secures a majority of votes in the Senate. She is expected to meet with senators in the coming weeks before she undergoes questioning in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The president said Monday at the event that Jackson was “eminently qualified” for the position, having attended Harvard Law School and served as editor of its law review.
“Judge Jackson is going to be an outstanding justice,” Biden said at the event, speaking after Harris.
Harris in her first public remarks on the judicial nomination called for the “swift confirmation” of Jackson to the Supreme Court.
The vice president lauded Jackson as a “brilliant mind” and said the D.C. Circuit Court judge has a “record of excellence” and would be a “phenomenal justice,” if she wins Senate approval.
“She has been confirmed on a bipartisan basis three times, and deserves, therefore, a swift confirmation now,” Harris told attendees of the event, which included members of Congress and leaders of historically Black colleges and universities.
