President Joe Biden is “close to an announcement” on the next U.S. Supreme Court nominee, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.
Biden has promised to name a replacement for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February, giving him five days including the weekend to announce his choice.
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS POTENTIAL SUPREME COURT NOMINEE CHILDS
“I’m not going to confirm any details about the process,” Psaki said when asked if interviews were complete. “I would note that we are five days away from the end of February, if my math is correct. The interviews are typically late-stage in the process, so we are getting close to an announcement.”
While the White House is trying to keep a lid on which black woman Biden will nominate, one potential nominee did get a defense from the podium last week.
Psaki was asked about criticism from the Left about South Carolina Judge J. Michelle Childs, who some say hews too closely to corporate interests. Rather than sidestep the question, Psaki responded directly.
“Some of the criticism I’ve seen out there is related to her labor record,” Psaki said of Childs, a U.S. district judge. “If you look at South Carolina, the [American Federation of Labor] in South Carolina endorsed her and has been supportive of her.”
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Psaki has otherwise been tight-lipped about both the nominees and the nomination process, saying only that Biden will announce a nominee by March 1.
Along with Childs, U.S. Appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the D.C. Circuit and California Supreme Court Associate Justice Leondra Kruger are rumored to be front-runners in the race to replace Breyer.
