Dems Call on Justice Sotomayor To Retire With Surprise Name Mentioned As Successor

Democrats find themselves in a state of concern now that President-elect Donald Trump has won in a “landslide victory” against former Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and are now pleading for a Supreme Court justice to step down.

According to Politico, some Democrats are proposing that Justice Sonia Sotomayor should “immediately retire” to prevent President-elect Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate from selecting her replacement.

“She can sort of resign conditionally on someone being appointed to replace her,” one Democratic senator shared with Politico. “But she can’t resign conditioned on a specific person. What happens if she resigns and the nominee to replace her isn’t confirmed, and the next president fills the vacancy?”

“The conversations have gone far enough that a possible replacement has been bandied about: D.C. Circuit Judge J. MICHELLE CHILDS, who was on President JOE BIDEN’s SCOTUS short list,” Politico noted. The reason for this consideration is clear: “Childs has already been vetted, is seen as moderate and even received backing by conservative senators like LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) last go round.” Politico, however, added that “Republicans would do everything imaginable to stop a lame-duck confirmation.”

Securing a replacement, however, would likely be complicated for Democrats.

“We would have to have assurances from any shaky senator that they would back a nominee in the lame duck,” a senior Democratic source told Politico. “Because what do you do if she announces she’s going to step down and then [independent West Virginia Sen. JOE] MANCHIN doesn’t support her and then [Republican Sens.] SUSAN COLLINS and LISA MURKOWSKI back off and say they’re not going to support a new nominee? Do you just rescind that letter?”

During a CNN appearance, Democratic analyst Bakari Sellers made a surprising suggestion for Justice Sotomayor’s replacement, catching anchor John Berman off guard.

“You know, Justice Sotomayor has been a more than able justice. I know that she may be having some personal issues that she contends with while serving on the bench. But, you know, I don’t want Justice Sotomayor to be another Ruth Bader Ginsburg in terms of staying too long,” he commented.

“What does this mean for the dynamic of the court? The court is six-three now. If we’re able to replace it with a Biden justice, there will still be six-three. The possibility of Justice Sotomayor having to resign or retire in the next four years is extremely high,” he added.

“You couple that with Alito and Clarence Thomas. Then that means that you go from a 6-3 court to a 7-2 court in terms of conservative versus liberal. And so I hope that Joe Biden makes the next ten weeks as consequential as he can. I don’t care about drawing outside the lines or what Republicans may think about it. This is within your purview. You can actually do it and you should do it,” Sellers said, before suggesting a surprising option for the role.

“And you know, one more thing, John, is you have a hell of a vice president right there who has a legal pedigree to sit on a Supreme Court. And let Republicans go crazy, ape, I’m even mentioning that option,” Sellers remarked.

A stunned Berman responded, “You’re floating– are you floating this –, you know, 7:39 a.m. on the East Coast? Did Bakari Sellers just float Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential Supreme Court nominee?”

Sellers confirmed, saying, “Not only am I floating it, but I want to stir up everything. I want people’s heads to explode this morning. So we go into the weekend just knowing that the chaos has not ended just yet.”