Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, has criticized President Joe Biden for making skin color and sex the deciding factors in choosing who to nominate to serve on the nation’s Supreme Court.
Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire later this year, which means that the president has the opportunity to nominate his replacement.
Biden said during remarks on Thursday that he will honor his campaign commitment to nominate a black woman. He said that the person he picks will have “extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity,” adding that the individual is going to “be the first black woman ever nominated” to the nation’s high court.
But Gabbard pushed back, contending that the president should only consider people’s qualifications and dedication to defending the Constitution.
“Biden’s mistake: He should not be choosing a Supreme Court justice based on the color of their skin or sex, but rather on their qualifications & commitment to uphold our Constitution & the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans in that document which is the foundation of our nation,” Gabbard tweeted.
Gabbard, who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years from from early 2013 until early 2021, launched a presidential bid during the previous election cycle, but later dropped out and supported Biden.
But during Biden’s tenure in office, Gabbard has not shied away from publicly criticizing the president.
“He promised to bring us together, to end the divisiveness,” Gabbard said in a video earlier this month. She declared that the president “has betrayed us all by pouring fuel on the fires of divisiveness that are tearing our country apart.”