Biden’s Supreme Court Moment (w/ Dahlia Lithwick & Jess Bravin)
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2022
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Journalist Jonathan Allen on this podcast last March described the fateful moment when Joe Biden, with his campaign on the ropes during the South Carolina primary in 2020, agreed to name an African-American woman to the Supreme Court. It was a commitment made under intense political pressure by house majority WHIP James Clyburn. The most powerful black politician in the state. But it paid off big time. Biden made his pledge, Clyburn endorsed the next morning, and the former Vice-President won a resounding victory in South Carolina putting his campaign on a gliding path to the nomination. And now, Biden's nearly two year old campaign pledge has become newly relevant as Justice Stephen Breyer announced he will be stepping down. Who will Biden actually pick to replace him? And how much difference will it make? Two veteran Supreme Court watches, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal, join to discuss.
GUESTS:
- Dahlia Lithwick (@Dahlialithwick), covers the court and law from Slate
- Jess Bravin (@JessBravin), Supreme Court correspondent for The Wall Street Journal
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
RESOURCES:
- Isikoff's piece on Biden's promise to select an African-American to Supreme Court - Here.
- Jonathan Allen's appearance on Skullduggery - Here.
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| 0:00.0 | The climber gets up from his seat in the debate hall in the audience and he makes a B-line |
| 0:06.6 | for the exit and the people around him his friends think he's a 79 year old guy, you must |
| 0:10.8 | really have to pee. |
| 0:11.8 | You have commercial break, he's getting out coming back. |
| 0:15.3 | But it turns out what he was doing is he's running backstage to go find Biden and you |
| 0:19.5 | know, people who judge comes up to say hello in the air, whatever. |
| 0:23.3 | And goes to find Biden and he says, look, I told you that I wanted you to say that you |
| 0:27.8 | were going to name a black woman with a report. |
| 0:29.2 | You haven't done it yet. |
| 0:30.6 | You've had a bunch of opportunities. |
| 0:32.0 | Don't you dare leave this stage without doing it. |
| 0:35.2 | That was the journalist Jonathan Allen on a school luxury episode last March describing |
| 0:40.3 | the fateful moment when Joe Biden was campaigned on the ropes during the South Carolina primary |
| 0:44.8 | in February 2020 agreed to name an African-American woman to the Supreme Court. |
| 0:50.2 | It was a commitment made under intense political pressure from House majority with James |
| 0:55.4 | Biden's most powerful black politician in the state, but it paid off a big time. |
| 1:01.4 | Biden made his pledge, and Biden endorsed the next morning on the former vice president |
| 1:06.2 | when a resounding victory in South Carolina putting his campaign on the ground and path |
| 1:10.8 | in the nomination. |
| 1:12.0 | And now Biden's nearly two year old campaign bled has become newly relevant as Justice |
| 1:17.0 | Stephen Breyer announced his plans to step down from the court at the end of his term, |
| 1:21.7 | giving the Democratic president his first chance to select the nominee. |
... |
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